3rd Batch Of 135 Indians Carried By IAF Aircraft From Port Sudan Arrives In Jeddah

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An IAF C-130J aircraft with 135 Indians from Port Sudan arrived in Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah early Wednesday morning. This was the third such batch reduced from war-torn Sudan under Operation Kaveri.

The government of India will facilitate the journey of these Indian nationals back to the country soon, tweeted MoS in Ministry of External Affairs V Muraleedharan. Earlier this morning, another IAF aircraft with 148 Indian citizens landed in Jeddah.

The Indian government is running Operation Kaveri to extract stranded citizens from Sudan which has been hit by severe violence due to clashes between the country’s forces and rebel RAF.

V Muraleedharan tweeted, “Third batch comprising 135 Indians from Port Sudan arrived in Jeddah by IAF C-130J aircraft. Onward journey to India for all who arrived in Jeddah will commence shortly.”

On another batch that landed in Jeddah, the minister tweeted, “First IAF C-130J aircraft under #OperationKaveri from Port Sudan carrying 148 Indians landed in Jeddah. Glad to see the joy in the Indians.”

The first batch of Indians stranded in Sudan were evacuated under Operation Kaveri on Tuesday. INS Sumedha departed Port Sudan for Jeddah with 278 people onboard. Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday that India has launched Operation Kaveri to rescue its citizens stranded from war-torn Sudan.

Jaishankar said the government was “committed to assist all our brethren in Sudan”. The government said it was focusing on the safety of over 3,000 Indian citizens presently located throughout Sudan.

The violence erupted in Sudan due to a power struggle between two main factions of the country’s military regime, resulting in the death of more than 250 people and leaving approximately 2,600 others injured in Khartoum and other cities.

The conflict involves the regular army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the main paramilitary force. This situation has raised the possibility of a civil war breaking out across the country.

Sudan has been under the control of a council of generals since the 2021 coup, with two military leaders at the center of the current dispute: Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who is effectively the country’s president and head of the armed forces, and his deputy,

Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, who leads the RSF paramilitary group. The two generals have differing views on the country’s future direction, particularly regarding the proposed shift towards civilian rule.