Yemen: Hours after 358 Indians arrived home following a dramatic rescue from strife-torn Yemen, the Indian Navy started its second round of evacuation and rescued 300 more Indians from the rebel-held port of Al Hodeidah.
“INS Sumitra proves to be a ‘good friend’. Docks in Al Hudaydah for the evacuation of 300 plus Indian nationals,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said.
Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh, who is in Djibouti since Tuesday to coordinate the evacuation operations with the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force, met Djibouti Foreign Minister Mohamoud Ali Youssouf to thank him.
All Indian nationals have been taken by sea from Yemen to Djibouti, which is on the Horn of Africa, from where they are being flown back to India on board Globemaster transport planes.
“Diplomacy in support of evacuation efforts, MoS @Gen_VKSingh thanks Foreign Minister Mohamoud Ali Youssouf of Djibouti,” tweeted Syed Akbaruddin.
In the early morning hours of Thursday, 358 Indians arrived safely back in India, at Kochi and Mumbai airports, after being evacuated from Yemen.
One C-17 Globemaster ferried 190 Indians to Mumbai on Thursday while another 168 went to Kochi in Kerala.
This is the fourth major evacuation which the Indian government has undertaken. The first three were in Ukraine, Iraq and Libya.
Fighting has been raging in Yemen since January 22 when the government under President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was ousted by Shia Houthi militia. Saudi Arabia has been heading air strikes on Yemen with a coalition of 10 countries.
Of the 358 Indians evacuated, 206 belong to Kerala, 40 are from Tamil Nadu, 31 from Maharashtra, 23 from West Bengal, 22 from Delhi, 15 from Karnataka and 13 from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, according to tweets by Akbaruddin.
Two warships – destroyer INS Mumbai and stealth frigate INS Tarkash – are also on their way to Djibouti as part of an operation named “Op Raahat”.
India has also agreed to requests from neighbours Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to assist in evacuation of their nationals from Yemen.
Around 800 Indians in Yemen have been evacuated so far.Â