India carries out Yemen rescue operations 800 more evacuated

Nearly 800 Indians were on Saturday evacuated from strife-torn Yemen where the situation has deteriorated significantly due to an escalation in fighting between two warring groups that have left the nation in tatters.

India has so far taken out 1,800 of its citizens from the country where a Saudi-led coalition is carrying out air strikes against Shia Muslim fighters, called Houthis, who have overrun most of the tiny nation and forced West-backed president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee.

Minister of state for external affairs VK Singh, who was overseeing the massive Indian evacuation operation from Djibouti, had also gone to Sanaa, the largest Yemeni city from where Air India rescued Indians after getting permission to land.

 
Meanwhile, navy ship INS Mumbai sent to evacuate Indians from Aden could not dock at the city port due to heavy shelling and small boats were used to ferry people to the ship.
 
“There is heavy shelling in Aden. The ship is anchored 5-6 kilometres off the coast. Indian nationals are being taken by boat to board the ship there,” external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said.

Indian authorities had hired small crafts to move 30-35 Indians at a time from the port to INS Mumbai, the navy said.

“Absolute tough environment at Aden… Evacuation of stranded Indians was carried out in almost war-like conditions,” a navy official said.

Official sources said the evacuation operation was going on notwithstanding the deteriorating situation across Yemen.

“We hope to complete the evacuation operation in the next few days,” an official said.
 
The sources said though security situation was becoming more precarious in Sanaa due to increasing hold of al Qaeda, India has been given slots to carry out air sorties to take out its citizens from the city.
 
“Maximum slots to carry out air sorties have been given to India. We were given two slots yesterday (Friday) and two slots today (Saturday). We hope to continue the evacuation from Saana.”
 
Officials sought to allay fears of kidnapping of Indians in Yemen, asserting that the situation was not like that in Iraq.
 
The sources said Indian Navy ship Tarkash and two other commercial ships are also available for evacuation of Indians from port cities including from Al-Hudaydah.
 
They said India had rescued two Nepalese and three nationals each of Bangladeshi and Pakistan also from Al-Hudaydah city two days back.
 
The sources said situation in Sanna was serious as militants have stepped up their offensive and particularly due to movement of heavy artilleries and missiles during nights.

“The security situation is deteriorating every day,” the sources said.
 
A no-fly zone enforced in Yemeni airspace by international coalition has made it difficult to evacuate Indians by air, they said, adding India has been requesting Saudi Arabia to allow aerial sorties to Saana on daily basis.
 
The sources said the number of Indians across Yemen was around 5,000 out of which 1,000 were women married to Yemeni nationals. The number of Indians in Saana would be around 3,000, while around 554 were in Aden and 298 were in offshore oil fields.