Operation Kaveri: The first batch of Indians stuck was evacuated from violence-hit Sudan on Tuesday. INS Sumedha departed Port Sudan on Tuesday for the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah with 278 people onboard. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted photos of the evacuated Indians who boarded the Indian Navy's warship INS Sumedha. Around 3,000 Indians are stuck in Sudan, as per official data.
Earlier, Union Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said the government is focusing on the safety of over 3,000 Indian citizens presently located throughout Sudan.
He said India has launched Operation Kaveri to rescue its citizens stranded in war-torn Sudan. Jaishankar said the government was "committed to assist all our brethren in Sudan".
The evacuation operation was launched a day after the External Affairs Ministry said two C-130s aircraft and the navy ship INS Sumedha are on standby to evacuate Indians from the violence-hit African nation.
On Tuesday, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Bagchi tweeted: "First batch of stranded Indians leaves Sudan under #OperationKaveri. INS Sumedha with 278 people onboard departs Port Sudan for Jeddah."
For the past 12 days, violence erupted in Sudan due to a power struggle between two main factions of the military regime, which resulted in the death of more than 400 people and left approximately 2,600 others injured in Khartoum and other cities.
The conflict involves the country’s regular army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the main paramilitary force.
72-hour ceasefire
Sudan’s warring factions agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire starting on Tuesday, while Western, Arab and Asian nations raced to extract their citizens from the country.
The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) said the US and Saudi Arabia mediated the truce. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced the agreement first and said it followed two days of intense negotiations. The two sides have not abided by several previous temporary truce deals.
“During this period, the United States urges the SAF and RSF to immediately and fully uphold the ceasefire,” Blinken said in a statement. He said the US would coordinate with regional, international and Sudanese civilian interests to create a committee that would oversee work on a permanent ceasefire and humanitarian arrangements.
The RSF confirmed in Khartoum that it had agreed to the ceasefire, starting at midnight, to facilitate humanitarian efforts. “We affirm our commitment to a complete ceasefire during the truce period”, the RSF said.
Rescue operations
Tens of thousands of people including Sudanese and citizens from neighbouring countries have fled in the past few days, to Egypt, Chad and South Sudan.
Foreign governments have been working to bring their nationals to safety. One 65-vehicle convoy took dozens of children, along with hundreds of diplomats and aid workers, on an 800-km, 35-hour journey in searing heat from Khartoum to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
For those remaining in Africa’s third-largest country, where a third of its 46 million people needed aid even before the violence, the situation was increasingly bleak. There were acute shortages of food, clean water, medicines and fuel and limited communications and electricity, with prices skyrocketing, said deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq.
(With agency inputs)
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