First Flight With Indians Evacuated from Sudan Lands in Delhi

New Delhi: The first flight with 360 Indians who were evacuated from violence-torn Sudan to Saudi Arabia took off from Jeddah Airport and reached India at around 9 pm on Wednesday, April 26.

Under ‘Operation Kaveri’, Indian citizens are being airlifted by the Indian Air Force (IAF) from Port Sudan to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, while others have been taken by ship.

India welcomes back its own. #OperationKaveri brings 360 Indian Nationals to the homeland as first flight reaches New Delhi. pic.twitter.com/v9pBLmBQ8X

— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) April 26, 2023

Fighting began in Sudan on April 14 as two generals, one in charge of the Army and the second who commands a paramilitary group, are engaged in a power struggle. The conflict is rooted in a coup in which the country’s long-standing dictator Omar al-Bashir was overthrown in 2021. Though rivals, Sudanese Army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commander General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo joined hands to oust the al-Bashir. However, they have not been able to come to an agreement on power sharing.

The evacuation of foreign nationals with greater momentum began in Sudan after the two sides announced a 72-hour ceasefire that began at midnight on April 24.

Indian minister of state for external affairs V. Muraleedharan shared a video of Indians on the first flight back to New Delhi.

Around 278 Indian citizens have been evacuated by ship in one trip, while the Indian Air Force military planes have already made three flights.

An estimated 4,000-5,000 Indians are in various parts of Sudan, with the majority in Khartoum. The evacuation from Khartoum continues to be logistically challenging, as Indians have been asked to go on their own to gathering points where buses are parked for them to travel to Port Sudan. According to members of the Indian community, it is very difficult to arrange transport from their house to the parked buses amidst the gunfire.

Giri Babu, a member of the Hakki Pikki tribal group from Karnataka, told The Wire that several members of his community are stranded across Sudan. He said that only those who were in Khartoum had managed to come in buses arranged by the embassy to Port Sudan. Several more are stuck in towns and cities in other places across the country he said.

Once outside Khartoum, the ride to Port Sudan is relatively smooth but long. After a journey of 15-20 hours, Indians reach the coastal city of Port Sudan, where the Indian embassy has turned a school into the hub of operations for evacuation.

While some Indian embassy staff had already set up camp earlier, their capacity to process the hundreds of Indians streaming into the school has been augmented by additional Indian personnel coming from Jeddah.

The Indian officials also brought DRDO-developed ready-to-eat meal packs, which were distributed among the awaiting Indians. Many of them were also going to tea stalls that were doing thriving business near the school. Reflecting the inflationary trends across Sudan, a glass of tea with sugar and mint was being sold at prices of 200 Sudanese pounds (SDG) (around Rs 28), while a piece of cake was costing five times more than normal – at 500 SDG.

The Indian officials had to also issue temporary travel documents to several Indians who did not have passports with them for various reasons. Besides, they had to grapple with complex consular problems, as many citizens did not want to leave their Sudanese spouses behind. Some of them had small children who did not have an Indian passport.

The Wire has received some photos from an Indian citizen who is in a school in Port Sudan. They show people eating the food distributed by the government, charging their electronic devices and then boarding a bus to the airport for evacuation.