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By Akshay Dongare: India, with the help of Saudi Arabia, successfully evacuated a substantial number of its stranded citizens from the crisis-ravaged Sudan. Under Operation Kaveri, the first batch of 360 Indians was flown back to their native land on Wednesday.
Evacuees, who landed in the national capital, narrated the tale of horror unleashed by the armed struggle between the generals in the crisis-torn African nation.
‘Felt like lying on a deathbed…’
“It felt like lying on a deathbed,” said Haryana’s Sukhvinder Singh, one of the 360 evacuees. “We had confined ourselves in a room which felt like lying on a deathbed,” he said.
‘Returned from a grave…’
Expressing disbelief at his arrival to the motherland, Chotu of Uttar Pradesh said, “I have returned from a grave. Will do something in the country. Will never go to Sudan again.”
‘They kept a rifle to chest…’
Another Indian said, “The tent of Rapid Support Forces (RSF) was fixated near our company. Early morning around 9, the forces entered our company. We were kept hostage for at least eight hours. They kept rifles to our chests and looted us. Our mobiles were stolen.”
‘Thanks to Almighty…’
“We were living in a small room without electricity or water. We never thought that we would face such a situation in our lifetime. Thanks to the Almighty that we returned alive,” said Tasmer Singh, an evacuee who belongs to Punjab’s Hoshiarpur.
‘Children suffocated for days…’
“The horror didn’t stop as a barrage of missiles hit even in civilian areas. My neighbour, who was pregnant, was hit in a missile strike. She died on the spot, there was nothing left of her, the entire building collapsed. After that, we kept our balcony doors and windows shut in fear of a missile entering our houses; the children felt suffocated for days. We are thankful that we escaped alive. We will not go back,” said Jyoti Aggrawal, another evacuee.
OPERATION KAVERI IN FULL SWING
Under Operation Kaveri, India successfully evacuated the first batch of 278 stranded Indians from Sudan on board naval ship INS Sumedha. Hours later, two C-130J aircraft of the Indian Air Force airlifted a second and third batch of 121 and 135 people respectively to Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah. As of now, of a total of six batches, around 1,100 Indians have been rescued from Sudan and arrived in Jeddah.
The government launched an evacuation mission for its citizens stuck in Sudan following the fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Under its evacuation mission ‘Operation Kaveri’, India is taking the evacuees to the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah from where they are returning home.
India is scrambling to get its citizens out of the conflict zone before the end of a tenuous ceasefire between the regular army and a paramilitary force.
Battles between Sudan’s army and the RSF paramilitary since mid-April have killed at least 459 people and injured more than 4,000, according to the WHO.
The fighting has plunged Sudan into chaos, pushing the already heavily aid-dependent African nation to the brink of collapse.
Before the clashes, the UN estimated that a third of Sudan’s population, or about 16 million people, needed assistance, a figure that is likely to increase.
ALL ABOUT SUDAN CRISIS
Sudan, a country in North-East Africa, has been mired in political instability for years. However, the recent clash between the Rapid Support Force (RSF) and the Sudanese military has added complexity to the situation.
The clash between the RSF and the Sudanese military erupted on April 15, 2023, in the capital city of Khartoum. While the immediate trigger behind the recent clashes is still unclear, a power struggle between the two factions has been broadly suspected to have played its role.
The RSF, a paramilitary force, was formed in 2013 to counter insurgency and has since become a powerful entity in Sudanese politics. It is headed by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, who is a key figure in the Transitional Military Council (TMC) that took over after the ousting of President Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
The Sudanese military, on the other hand, is the official armed forces of the country, responsible for the country’s defence and security. Eyewitnesses reported gunfire and explosions in the city, and social media was flooded with videos of the clashes. The situation quickly escalated, with reports of tanks and armoured vehicles on the streets.
The Indian authority and Indian Embassy in Sudan are assisting the stranded Indians, including facilitating their possible exit from Khartoum city to reach Port Sudan when the security situation allows for safe movement.
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