India
oi-Prakash KL
The Indian nationals who returned to India from trouble-hit Sudan have opened up on the ordeal they faced after the fighting broke out between the two military generals in the trouble-hit country.
India has launched ‘Operation Kaveri’ to bring back 3,000 citizens struck in Sudan.
Speaking to ANI, a person who returned from Sudan said, “The fight was intense. We were struggling for food. The scenario continued for 2-3 days.”
Another person accused the “forces” of looting them. “The RSF – paramilitary force in Sudan – were close to our company. Early morning 9 am, they entered our company and began firing and looting us. They kept us hostage for eight hours. They kept their guns on our heads and chest and looted us.
They destroyed everything in the company. They destroyed files and stole our laptops and mobile phones. We then contacted the embassy… We didn’t have any food and we then hid in a village. We arranged for diesel and asked the embassy to arrange buses for us to be evacuated,” Hindustan Times quoted him as saying.
The fighting erupted between the nation’s two top Generals, who have the backing of tens of thousands of heavily armed fighters, on April 15.
#WATCH | Indian nationals evacuated from Sudan, narrate their ordeal in the conflict-torn country. pic.twitter.com/c6zcN84r9G
— ANI (@ANI) April 26, 2023
Sudan’s military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo were together till recently, brought down Omar al-Bashir’s government in 2019 by orchestrating a military coup in October 2021 resulting in the suspension of the constitution. However, differences between the two Generals cropped up during negotiations to integrate the RSF into the country’s military as part of plans to restore civilian rule.
According to the official data, India has evacuated 530 people stuck in Sudan. Two military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) evacuated over 250 Indians after a naval ship rescued another 278 citizens from the trouble-hit country.
“Operation Kaveri is underway to bring back our citizens stranded in Sudan. About 500 Indians have reached Port Sudan while more are on their way. Our ships and aircraft are set to bring them back home. We are committed to assisting all our brethren in Sudan,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday tweeted on the evacuation process of Indians in Sudan.
India has set up a control room in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to facilitate the evacuation of Indians from Sudan and Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan is there to oversee the evacuation mission.
On Saturday, Saudi Arabia evacated 66 people from “brotherly and friendly” foreign countries that included three Indian nationals. Also, five Indian nationals were evacuated from Sudan and brought to France’s military base in Djibouti on Monday.
The death toll due to the fighting has increased to 460 and left 4,063 people injured, so far.
