With the week-long crisis in Sudan showing no signs of a truce, India on Monday launched ‘Operation Kaveri’ to evacuate its nationals from the violence-hit African nation.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said India’s ships and aircraft are set to bring the Indians back home. “Operation Kaveri gets underway to bring back our citizens stranded in Sudan. About 500 Indians have reached Port Sudan. More on their way,” Jaishankar tweeted.
Diplomats of several Western countries like the US, UK, Sweden and France were evacuated by their governments in the past hours. Though the stakeholders had hoped for a ceasefire to coincide with the three-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, it did not materialise.
Over 420 people have been killed and over 3,700 wounded in fighting between the Sudanese armed forces and the powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces, according to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Sudan’s military, headed by Lt Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary group RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, are up in arms due to their disagreements over the proposed transition to civilian rule in the country. Burhan and Dagalo fell out over a recent internationally brokered deal with democracy activists that was meant to incorporate the RSF into the military and eventually lead to civilian rule.
There is a widespread shortage of food, clean water, medicine, fuel, electricity and means of communication, as per the latest OCHA report. It added that the prices of essentials have skyrocketed. The report said that there have been nearly a dozen verified attacks on health facilities. The clashes have also triggered an exodus of civilians to neighbouring nations like Chad, Egypt and South Sudan.
📌 Where is the fighting now?
Most of the fighting is focused around the capital city of Khartoum. Omdurman, the most populous city in the country, has seen firing thundering explosions. It has also destroyed parts of the Khartoum international airport. Satellite photographs showed thick, black smoke drifting up from damaged civilian aeroplanes and at least one runway. Sudan’s Civil Aviation Authority have closed the airport until further notice.
Other cities under attack include Merowe and Port Sudan towards the north, Kassala and Gadarif to the east, Kosti and Damazin to the south and KabKabiya, Al-Fasher and Nyala to the south, as per a report in Al-Jazeera.
This satellite photo shows damaged aircraft, including one on fire, at Khartoum International Airport in Khartoum, Sudan, April 17, 2023. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
The ongoing clashes have already claimed the life of an Indian. Albert Augustine, 48, an ex-serviceman from Kerala, was killed after being hit by stray bullets. The Indian Express reported that Albert had been working as a security manager with a firm in Sudan and was hit by a bullet when he opened a window of his house to make a call to his son who studies in the UK.
As many as 3,000 Indians are believed to be stranded in Sudan. A few of them have been evacuated by the French and Saudi Arabian rescue missions, but their exact numbers have not been released.
The United States evacuated its embassy staff from Khartoum on Sunday and shuttered its diplomatic mission indefinitely, said media reports. A US embassy convoy was attacked in Sudan’s capital city last Monday, triggering plans to evacuated the mission, said the Associated Press in a report.
– The United Kingdom too announced Sunday that it had flown out its diplomatic staff, along with the US.
– Canada has suspended its consular services as of Sunday. Global Affairs Canada said in a statement: “The situation in Sudan has rapidly deteriorated making it impossible to safeguard the safety and security of our staff. After consulting with Canada’s Ambassador to Sudan, the decision has been made to temporarily suspend our operations in Sudan.” It added that its ambassadors will continue to function from a safe location outside of Sudan for the time being.
– France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Russia, Jordan, Libya, Tunisia, Lebanon, Japan, Ghana, South Korea, Kenya, Nigeria, Norway, Ireland and Denmark have all either flown out their diplomats or are in the process of evacuating their teams.
The Indian Express
