The first batch of Indians stranded in conflict-torn Sudan were evacuated as part of ‘Operation Kaveri’ on board INS Sumedha from Port Sudan on Tuesday. The group of 278 people were among the first to reach Port Sudan during the 72-hour ceasefire that took effect from Monday midnight. They are expected to reach the Saudi port of Jeddah within a day. The Ministry of External Affairs informed on Tuesday that additional measures are being taken to broaden the operation as spokesperson Arindam Bagchi announced, “ INS Teg joins Operation Kaveri. Arrives at Port Sudan with additional officials and essential relief supplies for stranded Indians. Will boost ongoing evacuation efforts by Embassy Camp Office at Port Sudan.”
Indian citizens in the Sudanese port told The Hindu that the Indian embassy had begun coordinating over the past four days for possible evacuation from Khartoum, Omdurman and other crisis-hit areas. However, the actual operation took time to begin because it took time for the ceasefire to come into effect and also because the civilian infrastructure on the ground had come to a halt. The worst affected is Sudan’s banking sector as banks have stopped working, adding to peoples’ misery.
Banking hit
Speaking to The Hindu, Batuk Harkisandas, secretary of the Indian Association in Port Sudan, said neither banks nor petrol pumps were working in Sudan which had made movement and transactions nearly impossible. “We had a digital cash system in Sudan which stopped functioning as soon as the war began. Sometimes we manage to transfer cash digitally and sometimes we cannot. There is a scarcity of diesel and it was with great difficulty that we found diesel for our buses,” Mr. Harkisandas said. He said that in view of the collapse of the digital banking system, Indians had to use whatever hard currency they had in hand to get out of the crisis-hit areas. The season of Id had also added to difficulty as Sudanese transporters usually take their buses to village homes during Id. “They had to pay extra to convince the drivers to come to Port Sudan,” said Mr. Harkisandas.
Indians are among the largest Asian communities in Sudan and are scattered in its big cities which are badly affected by the war between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). An Indian citizen who was evacuated from Khartoum told The Hindu buses had to travel nearly 800 km from Khartoum to Port Sudan to bring them to the point of extraction where INS Sumedha was waiting. Upon reaching Port Sudan, the Indians were housed in a school building where the local Indian community is volunteering to look after the requirements.
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“We are a community of 35 to 40 Indians in Port Sudan and we are trying our best as our brothers and sisters are coming from Khartoum and Omdurman,” Mr. Harkisandas said. He said they have very little resource at hand to cater to the hundreds of Indians gathering in Port Sudan.
According to available information, the total number of Indians in Sudan is around 3,000.
Fierce fighting
Indian nationals who are being evacuated said the fighting is fierce in Khartoum but the situation in Port Sudan is safe as they did not witness any fighting in the port city so far. However, Indians who came in buses were stopped in multiple checkpoints that were manned by the forces belonging to rival factions of the RSF and the SAF. “We reached Port Sudan on Monday morning as we wanted to exit as soon as possible. We took our own responsibility because we were told that the Government of India would take responsibility of our departure from Port Sudan,” said a passenger who was waiting for his turn to get into INS Sumedha. The fighting, he mentioned, “is really bad in Khartoum. Even as we were leaving in bus, there were bullets and missiles in the air.”
Operation Kaveri was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Monday. As part of the preparation, India had stationed INS Sumedha at Port Sudan and had placed two C-130J heavy-lift aircraft in Jeddah to fly out nationals from Sudan. On Tuesday morning, Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan reached Jeddah to coordinate activities to evacuate Indians from Sudan. Indian nationals are present in Khartoum and nearly in all the other major cities and in distant Darfur in the country’s west.
“No aircraft and train are functioning in Sudan at the moment and the only way for us to come to Port Sudan was to board a bus. We pulled money and formed groups and slowly are converging in Port Sudan as our buses are coming one by one,” said an Indian national who is waiting to board the next ferry service to Jeddah. The situation is further complicated by the intense summer of Sudan which has pushed temperature beyond 41 degrees. The air corridor over Sudan is closed in view of use of missiles and fighter jets by the RSF and the SAF but there are unconfirmed reports that the airspace over Port Sudan could be opened to help in evacuation.
Mr. Muraleedharan said, “Necessary infrastructure is in place in both Port Sudan and Jeddah. Team is in full readiness on the ground.”
