Indian Navy Evacuates Its Nationals from Troubled Yemen
India has launched a massive evacuation program and a warship rescued more Indian nationals who were stranded in Yemen from the western Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Thursday.
As many as 349 Indians on Wednesday reached Djibouti after being evacuated on a Navy vessel from Aden, the seaport city of strife-torn Yemen, and will be brought back to India by the Indian Air Force on Wednesday night, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said.
Consequent upon the Government of India issuing an advisory for Indian nationals to leave Yemen, the Indian Navy has deployed 3 ships in support of the evacuation operation.
In a well co-ordinated operation involving multiple agencies, INS Sumitra, an offshore patrol vessel, which has been deployed for anti-piracy patrol in the Gulf of Aden since March 11 2015, was the first to undertake evacuation from Yemen.
The ship was re-deployed off the Port of Aden on March 30 2015 and, thereafter, entered Aden Harbour in the evening of 31 Mar 15. The ship evacuated 349 Indians from Aden.
General (retd) V K Singh, Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs, has also reached Djibouti to oversee the evacuation operation launched by the government to rescue over 4,000 nationals in Yemen. This is first time that an Indian minister oversees the operations personally on site.
‘You are safe’, MoS VK Singh told Indians evacuated from Yemen.
"India n nationals evacuated from Aden by Indian Navy have reached Djibouti. They will be brought back to India by Indian Air Force soon. One plane will land in Kochi and the other in Mumbai late Wednesday evening. My colleague General VK Singh is coordinating the operations with Indian Navy and Air Force in Djibouti," Swaraj tweeted on Wednesday morning.
Over 3,500 are still stuck in war-torn Yemen. The Indian Navy and the Indian embassy are coordinating with Indians working there through their employers to bring them back. The embassy alerted all Indians working in Yemen to reach three major ports in Aden, Mukhalla and Al Hodeidah in west coast of Yemen for evacuation.
The Indians were evacuated late Tuesday night by INS Sumitra, which was diverted from its antipiracy patrol in the region. It waited for hours to get local clearances as heavy fighting was reported in the city. Indian Navy ships Mumbai and Tarkash have also been pressed into evacuation efforts -- 'Operation Raahat'.
The ships will escort two passenger vessels, Kavaratti and Corals, through the piracy risk area off the coast of Somalia. These passenger vessels had sailed from Kochi on March 30 to Djibouti.
The two warships will, thereafter, be available for evacuation of Indian nationals from Yemeni ports, as required.
