Another flight carrying a group of stranded Indians from crisis-hit Sudan landed in Mumbai on Friday morning.
The Indian evacuees were seen shouting slogans like “Bharat Mata ki jai,” and “Vande Mataram” at the airport and they also lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for rescuing them from Sudan under “Operation Kaveri”.
#WATCH | Another flight carrying Indian passengers reaches Mumbai. They have been evacuated from conflict-torn Sudan. #OperationKaveri pic.twitter.com/wDW9NKJk4w
— ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2023
The evacuees expressed their happiness in coming back home safe. While speaking to ANI, Mahesh, a native of Karnataka, thanked the Indian government’s initiative and said that the arrangements for the stranded Indians were really commendable.
“I want to thank the Government of India. First, we were brought to Port Sudan and then we were taken to Saudi Arabia and there also we got good arrangements,” Mahesh told ANI.
#WATCH | “I want to thank the Government of India. First, we were brought to Port Sudan and then we were taken to Saudi Arabia and there also we got good arrangements,” says Mahesh, a native of Karnataka, who returned from Sudan pic.twitter.com/HzsvEQ4PGw
— ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2023
Meanwhile, another evacuee, a native of Odisha, who arrived in Mumbai, told ANI, that India is so powerful that they were able to smoothly evacuate its people, even when the US hasn’t been able to do that.
“India has a very good and powerful reputation there (Sudan). A country like America is not able to evacuate its people. But the Indian govt evacuated their people safely and I thank the govt and all management for their move”, he told ANI.
#WATCH | Another Indian national, native of Odisha, who arrived in Mumba narrates his ordeal in Sudan; says, “India has a very good and powerful reputation there (Sudan). A country like America is not able to evacuate its people. But the Indian govt evacuated their people safely… pic.twitter.com/HQJGbo2osk
— ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2023
A total of 3,584 Indians have been evacuated from the strife-torn country under “Operation Kaveri” which completed nine days of operations on Thursday, according to the Indian embassy in Sudan. India has been taking its citizens in buses from conflict zones of Khartoum and other troubled areas to Port Sudan from where they are being taken to the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah in Indian Air Force’s (IAF) heavy-lift transport aircraft and Indian Navy’s ships. Further from Jeddah, the Indians are being brought back home in either a commercial flight or an IAF aircraft.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, 192 Indians, who were stranded in Sudan, landed in Ahmedabad. They were brought to Gujarat in Indian Air Force C17 aircraft from Port Sudan to Ahmedabad.
On the same day, “20 evacuees departed from N’Djamena in two batches of 2 and 18 onboard flights destined for Chennai and Bengaluru respectively. These evacuees had crossed over from Sudan into Chad through the adjoining land border,” Bagchi tweeted.