Bengaluru:A flight carrying 362 Indians who were stranded in strife-torn Sudan landed at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru on Friday, a senior official said.
The evacuees included 114 from Karnataka, he added.
India on Friday brought home 754 people under its mission to evacuate stranded Indians from Sudan. While 392 people arrived in New Delhi in a C-17 heavy-lift aircraft of the Indian Air Force, 362 Indians were brought to Bengaluru.
According to official data, the total number of Indians brought home from the African nation now stands at 1,360.
Under Operation Kaveri, India has been rescuing its citizens in buses from conflict zones in Khartoum and other troubled areas to Port Sudan from where they are being taken to Jeddah in Indian Air Force’s transport aircraft and Indian Navy’s ships. From Jeddah, the Indians are being brought home in either commercial flights or IAF aircraft.
Commissioner of Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority Manoj Rajan said, “Today we had a flight bringing 362 evacuees from Sudan. It landed at Kempegowda International Airport at 4.30 pm.”
“These 362 evacuees comprised 241 males, 107 females, 12 children and two infants. Of those who arrived from Sudan, 114 are from Karnataka,” he said.
Most of those from Karnataka belonged to the Hakki-Pikki tribe who had got to Sudan to offer medical treatment to the people there.
In the last two days, 119 people from Karnataka have been evacuated from Sudan. Of them, 50 are from Shivamogga, 45 from Mysuru, 14 from Bengaluru, four from Kalaburagi, two each from Ramanagara and Udupi and one each from Davangere and Hassan districts, Rajan said.
“Arrangements have also been made for last-mile connectivity. Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation buses have been arranged to carry the evacuees from Bengaluru Airport to their hometowns,” the officer added.
India has set up separate control rooms in Jeddah and Port Sudan and the Indian embassy in Khartoum has been coordinating with them and the MEA’s headquarters in Delhi.
Sudan has been witnessing deadly fighting between the country’s army and a paramilitary group that has reportedly left around 400 people dead.
On Monday, Jaishankar announced the launch of Operation Kaveri to evacuate Indians from Sudan.
Protesters carry a banner as they attend a mass ‘independence party’ in a demonstration against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his nationalist coalition government’s judicial overhaul. The fight over the judicial changes ‘transcends issues of left and right, and comes down to public distrust in government’, said one of the architects of the plans, Simcha Rothman.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
“I haven’t sold anything since 6am today,” said Adam Musa, a vegetable seller at Omdurman’s open-air market, as fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces raged a few miles away. “There are no people buying.”
Musa, 55, faced two problems: a lack of customers, and an inability on the part of those who did come to pay what he was charging.
His costs had increased sharply since violence broke out in Omdurman’s neighbouring city of Khartoum and elsewhere around Sudan on 15 April. In particular, fuel costs have soared, affecting the prices of all commodities, as fuel stations have closed down and petrol supplies have moved over to the black market.
“The cost of transporting is crazy,” he said. “I used to pay 1,500 SDG [Sudanese pounds; about £2] to transport my vegetables from Al-Shaabi souk on the other side of Omdurman. Now it is 10,000 SDG [£13.40]. I understand why it is so expensive. The transporters buy their fuel from the black market. God, make our lives easier.”
Only about 50% of the stalls at the market were open, and those who had ventured out looking for food faced price rises across the board: a kilo of beef up from 3,500 to 8,800 SDG; a kilo of tomatoes up from 330 to 3,000 SDG; a small bag of onions up from 6,000 to 10,000 SDG. Sugar, a vital commodity in Sudan, rose from 6,000 SDG for a 10kg basket to 10,000 SDG before disappearing from the market altogether.
Despite the sound of gunfire, the looting and the security vacuum, the dominant conversation among people in Omdurman is how expensive life has become.
Khamiesa Nimir, 44, a mother of eight, said she had fled the neighbourhood where she lived to the north of Omdurman because the fighting was getting close and armed robberies were taking place. “You can’t walk along the street alone,” she said.
Nimir said the cost of food and transport was rapidly rising beyond her reach. “My children haven’t had food since yesterday,” she said, adding that she had begged the driver of the minibus that brought her to this part of Omdurman to charge her 300 SDG instead of the 500 he had initially demanded.
“We are so poor … I was hoping to go to my mother in South Kordofan [a state on the border with South Sudan], but the bus ticket is unaffordable for me and my children,” she said.
As black smoke rose to the east, gunfire could be heard from inside the market as stallholders tried to scare away thieves.
“This is normal, they are chasing robbers, especially from the gold market,” a falafel stallholder said as he tried to reassure a woman who had begun to run away when she heard the firing. “You need to be extremely careful,” he told the woman. “They will take everything you have, even the plastic bag you are carrying, let alone the mobile phone in your pocket.”
El-Daw Ali, 63, a father of seven who owns a small restaurant in Ombadah, in west Omdurman, said the cost of a meal for one consisting of four small pieces of fish had doubled from 500 to 1,000 SDG since the fighting began.
Ali’s usual source of fish is the big fish market in Khartoum, located on the west bank of the Nile, but it has been forced to shut down by the fighting.
“I went to buy fish from small fishermen on the White Nile banks instead,” Ali said. “I had to cross past RSF forces who are deployed on the streets along the way. The fighting was going on around me. But what can I do? The situation is awful, I just hope things will calm down.”
He apologised to an elderly woman who in normal times he would not charge. “I’m really sorry, I can’t help you today,” he said. “You need to pay to get the fish.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Street battles and gunfire threaten what remains of a fragile ceasefire in Sudan, now hanging by a thread despite a three-day extension of the truce agreement as a Turkish evacuation plane was shot at as it attempted to land.
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, claimed the paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces had shot at the plane as it landed at the Wadi Seidna airbase, 12.5 miles (20km) north of Khartoum on the western bank of the Nile. The SAF said the attack had wounded a crew member and damaged the plane’s fuel supply.
The RSF denied its forces had attacked the Turkish military plane and instead blamed the SAF, claiming it wanted to “sabotage our relations” with allies. “It is not true that we targeted any aircraft in the sky of Wadi Seidna in Omdurman, which is an area not under the control of our forces, and we do not have any forces in its proximity,” it said.
Why violence has broken out in Sudan – video explainer
Amid questions about whether three more Turkish flights scheduled to evacuate citizens from Sudan would be able to land, or whether the fourth plane would leave the airfield, Turkey’s defence ministry confirmed the incident without attributing blame.
“Light weapons fired on our C-130 evacuation plane,” it said, adding that the plane had landed safely. “Although there are no injuries to our personnel, necessary checks will be carried out on the aircraft.”
The British ambassador to Sudan and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) had instructed British nationals wishing to leave the country to travel to the evacuation centre at Wadi Seidna airbase as soon as possible, amid growing criticism that the FCDO was doing little to help doctors and others with British residency stranded in Sudan or neighbouring countries with their families.
Plumes of smoke rise in Bahri during clashes. Photograph: Video obtained by Reuters
Fighting between the two warring generals who head the SAF and RSF has overtaken the capital, Khartoum, and much of its sister city, Omdurman, amid increasing reports of violence in West Darfur province next to the border with Chad and fears that the street battles and looting that have plagued Khartoum could take hold across Sudan.
Clouds of thick smoke rose above two areas of Bahri, northern Khartoum, on Friday as locals reported hearing sounds of gunfire. The Sudanese army, the SAF, has used airstrikes with jets or drones to strike RSF forces that have fanned out through residential neighbourhoods in Sudan’s sprawling capital. Civilians have been left to shelter in their homes, often without easy access to food, water, fuel or electricity.
“The situation this morning is very scary. We hear the sounds of planes and explosions. We don’t know when this hell will end,” Mahasin al-Awad, a Bahri resident, told Reuters. “We’re in a constant state of fear for ourselves and our children.”
Fierce battles and airstrikes have caused mass displacement, with thousands of Sudanese and foreign nationals fleeing the capital for Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast or to the borders with neighbouring countries.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said an estimated 20,000 people, primarily Chadian and Sudanese nationals, had crossed Sudan’s border into Chad since fighting began almost two weeks ago. The UN refugee agency estimated that up to 100,000 people may seek refuge in Chad in the coming weeks from Sudan, as well as a further 170,000 people fleeing to South Sudan.
The non-governmental organisation Care says most of those arriving in the Sudan-Chad border region are women and children. More than 42,000 people are sheltering in the open or in huts carrying just a few essential belongings or in some cases nothing at all due to the stress of their flight from their homes.
‘We’re just lucky’: Sudan evacuees reach safety – video
Aid groups in Chad also highlighted concerns that the influx of refugees had come as they were trying to prepare for the lean season between harvests, increasing food insecurity for millions, as well as heavy rains that could block vital food aid to thousands of stranded refugees.
“It’s a perfect storm,” said Pierre Honnorat, who leads the World Food Programme in Chad. “The lean season coming in June. And the rainy season that will cut off all those regions.”
Sudan was already hosting an estimated 1.3 million migrants, including some who had fled violence in surrounding regions, particularly Ethiopia’s northern state of Tigray. Many now risk further displacement or being unable to escape violence owing to fears of political persecution in other surrounding countries.
According to the IOM, at least 1,000 people have crossed into Ethiopia each day this week, and more are expected to arrive. Most are Turkish and Ethiopian nationals, as well as groups of Sudanese and Somali citizens. Almost 15% of arrivals in Ethiopia are minors, it says.
Sudanese refugees queue to receive supplements from the World Food Programme in the border town of Adre, Chad. Photograph: Mahamat Ramadane/Reuters
This increased pressure on surrounding countries has prompted regional leaders to bolster efforts to press on the warring generals to restore what remains of the fraying ceasefire.
The Ethiopian prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, said he had held phone discussions with Burhan of the SAF and Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, of the RSF, to discuss “the need to settle differences amicably and bring stability to Sudan”, adding: “The great people of Sudan deserve peace.”
Countries from the African Union and the UN, as well as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the UK and the US, welcomed the ceasefire extension and called for “its full implementation”. The groups hailed both parties’ readiness “to engage in dialogue towards establishing a more durable cessation of hostilities and ensuring unimpeded humanitarian access”.
The generals’ willingness to cease fighting and prepare for dialogue did not appear evident on the ground, where battles have left at least 460 people dead. Shortly before the ceasefire renewal, the World Health Organization condemned what it said were increasing attacks on healthcare personnel, hospitals and ambulances across Sudan. The attacks had left at least three dead and two injured, it added.
The WHO said 16 hospitals, including nine in Khartoum, were “reportedly non-functional due to attacks”. A further 16 hospitals in Khartoum and Darfur states were close to being non-functional due to staff fatigue and lack of supplies, it added.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
The U.K conducted its last evacuation flight from Sudan on Saturday, as the U.S. and France also brought groups of foreign nationals out of the conflict-torn African country.
The moves come amid a deteriorating security situation in Sudan, as fighting continues between the Sudanese Armed Forces and its rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The British government decided to end evacuation flights “because of a decline in demand by British nationals, and because the situation on ground continues to remain volatile,” the U.K. Foreign Office said in a statement.
“Focus will now turn to providing consular support to British nationals in Port Sudan and in neighboring countries in the region,” it said, noting that more than 1,888 people were evacuated on 21 flights during the operation.
A French plane arrived in Chad on Friday carrying staff from the United Nations and international humanitarian non-profit organizations. France has evacuated over a thousand people from Sudan since the outbreak of hostilities.
The U.S. State Department said on Saturday that a convoy of U.S. citizens, locally-employed staff and citizens of partner countries arrived in Port Sudan and that it is assisting those eligible to travel onward to Saudi Arabia.
“Intensive negotiations by the United States with the support of our regional and international partners enabled the security conditions that have allowed the departure of thousands of foreign and U.S. citizens,” the State Department said.
“We continue,” it added, “to call on the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces to end the fighting that is endangering civilians.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Cairo: Egypt has received more than 16,000 foreigners fleeing the deadly violence in neighbouring Sudan, including over 14,000 Sudanese national, the Foreign Ministry in Cairo said in a statement.
The foreigners are from 50 countries and six international organisations, Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said in the statement.
“The Egyptian efforts continue around the clock to facilitate the reception of citizens fleeing military clashes in Sudan, work to alleviate their suffering, and provide them with the necessary humanitarian assistance,” Xinhua news agency quoted Abu Zeid as saying.
Egypt has managed to evacuate 2,679 Egyptians from Sudan as of Wednesday, official data showed.
The armed conflict that broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forves (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 15 has killed at least 459 people and injured more than 4,000 others so far, according to the World Health Organization.
In the latest development, the SAF and RSF have agreed to extend the existing ceasefire, which expired at midnight Thursday, for three more days.
Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the Army’s general commander, gave initial approval for the extension late on Wednesday for another 72 hours, the SAF said in a statement, reiterating it unilaterally approved the truce extension.
In response, the RSF said that it agreed “to extend the humanitarian truce for an additional 72 hours” starting at midnight Thursday.
“We reaffirm our commitment to the terms of the humanitarian truce, considering the circumstances of the Sudanese people and to facilitate the evacuation of diplomatic and foreign nationals,” the statement added.
The current truce failed to stop fighting in the Sudanese capital Khartoum and other regions, but it created a lull for foreign countries to evacuate their diplomats and citizens from the conflict-ravaged country.
Mumbai: Despite limited staff, the Indian embassy in Sudan operated round-the-clock to evacuate those stranded in the war-torn country, said some of the people who arrived in Mumbai from the African nation under ‘Operation Kaveri’ mission.
These passengers, who landed in Mumbai on Thursday, narrated their harrowing experiences of the last seven days. Abdul Kadir, a 39-year-old businessman, said after the situation in Khartoum worsened, India’s ambassador B S Mubarak and his team of eight officials worked tirelessly.
“With limited staff, they did unlimited work,” he said, adding that the Indian embassy was operating 24×7 during this period. Mubarak himself was stuck in the worst-affected part of the city, but he was continuously in touch with the staff and volunteers, he said.
The ambassador created WhatsApp groups of Indians in each locality and ensured that every person got help, Kadir added. Defence attache Gurpreet Singh took risk and brought Mubarak to a safe area, he said.
Kadir, who was living in Sudan since 2017, said they were used to the tense situation in the country, but this time things took a bad turn unexpectedly, though they were hoping that tensions would decrease in the holy month of Ramadan.
“Within one hour, the situation went out of control,” he said, adding that they did not get a chance even to buy food and groceries. “We got the benefit of being Indians. We were allowed to pass peacefully through numerous checkpoints,” Kadir said, adding that the Indian community at Port Sudan not only opened their homes but also their hearts for the rescued compatriots.
Another passenger said the situation was very bad, and the work done by the embassy staff could not be described in words. “I only pray to Allah that all our stranded brothers and those in the embassy reach home safely,” he added.
Many people were still waiting for their relatives to reach Mumbai from Sudan. Anita Pandey, a resident of Kalyan, was one of them.
Her husband had been working as a fitter in Khartoum for the last one year. “My husband’s friend told me that he has been rescued and is safe. I don’t know where he is at present, but we are waiting for his arrival….,” Pandey said.
Terrifying, crazy, desperate, relieved. These were the words that instantly came to mind as British citizens caught in the crosshairs of the conflict engulfing Sudan described their elation at being brought to safety during a fragile 72-hour truce.
In Cyprus, on the first leg of their journey back home, the evacuees spoke of anger but also hope as they related the turmoil many had unwittingly been plunged into when war erupted in the country.
“What I saw there was crazy, terrifying,” said Sami Elhaj as he prepared to board a Stansted-bound charter plane at Larnaca airport with hundreds of other evacuees. “You never expect this sort of thing to happen to you.”
Raised in Birmingham, where he works in the car manufacturing industry, the 26-year-old got caught up in Sudan’s sudden descent into violence while visiting relatives. “I had gone to support my family after my father died,” he said. “We’re all just so happy and relieved but we know there are others there who want to be where we are, who want to be here.”
The ceasefire has enabled RAF crews in Cyprus, where the UK retains two military bases, to run rescue flights out of an airfield north of Khartoum.
By late Thursday, nine such airlifts were on course to have been conducted. By early on Thursday, the third and last day of a 72-hour truce that warring generals eventually decided to extend, well-placed sources said 760 people had reached the eastern Mediterranean island. In addition to British passport holders and their dependants, dozens of American citizens and close to 70 Australians had been allowed to board the military transport planes, according to diplomats. For all, the journeys have signified freedom but also life guaranteed after weeks in a war zone that has become increasingly brutal.
For Khadija Mohamed, a nursery school teacher who had flown to Khartoum on 7 April, before tensions between Sudan’s armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) spiralled into savagery, the last few weeks had given her a glimpse of living hell. By the time she touched down in Cyprus – the EU’s most easterly member state and a regional hub for the evacuation of non-combatants – on a C-130 Hercules, she had witnessed gun blasts and shootings, seen dead bodies strewn in the streets “if you can imagine that” and smelt the acrid stench of burnt-out, and burning, cars: a tableau of devastation she had never thought possible when she flew out to visit family.
Nursery school teacher Khadija Mohamed and her niece Rodina. Photograph: Helena Smith/The Guardian
“It was terrible,” said the soft-spoken 53-year-old as she stood in line with other relatives at a check-in counter in Larnaca. “We really appreciate what the British people have done for us.”
Mohamed, who has lived in Bristol since 2003 and has dual citizenship, recounted the perils of reaching the Wadi Seidna airbase without an escort.
“I was, we all were, very frightened,” she said putting a reassuring arm around her niece. “There were a lot of checkpoints manned by the Sudanese army along the way. Each time you had to show your passport and it was really scary. Your stomach was in your mouth.”
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The Foreign Office estimates that around 4,000 British passport holders are eligible for evacuation. Those who make it to Cyprus then board special charter flights, also commissioned by the UK government, to fly to Stansted airport.
But while feelings of gratitude and relief prevail there is also fury at the disorganisation that has plagued the operation. Mona Zanon, who has mobility issues, related the trauma of being forced to get to the RAF airbase without any aid. “I had emailed the [UK] authorities there to come and get me,” said the visibly exhausted 65-year-old clutching her British passport. “I got absolutely no answer. It made me quite angry.”
Mona Zanon, who lives in Manchester, at Larnaca airport in Cyprus with her British passport after being evacuated by the RAF from Sudan. Photograph: Helena Smith/The Guardian
Ultimately Zanon, who has lived in Manchester for decades, said her brother had driven her to the airfield. “It was very dangerous,” she said. “Very, very dangerous.”
For others the fear of uncertainty lurked even when they reached the airfield. “I left everything behind, my jewellery, my clothes, everything,” said Hadija, a mother of three who has lived in London for the past 30 years.
“There was no plane [for us] and for two days me and my son and daughter-in-law had to sleep on the ground. There was very little to eat and it was very hard, but I am, we all are, very happy now.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
246 Indians evacuated from Sudan reach Mumbai safely (Photo: ANI)
Mumbai: An Indian Air Force flight brought 246 Indians – who were evacuated from the strife-torn Sudan – to Mumbai via Jeddah, under ‘Operation Kaveri’, an official said here on Thursday.
The flight by an IAF C-17 Globemaster aircraft took off from Jeddah this morning and landed here after 3 p.m., and the passengers included at least two on wheelchairs.
Simultaneously, the Indian Navy has got into the act in a big way for the evacuation of Indians stranded in Sudan.
The INS Teg, an anti-piracy patrol vessel was diverted to Port Sudan and retrieved 297 Indians and dropped them to Jeddah.
Earlier, the first ship INS Sumedha had brought 278 Indians to Jeddah on Wednesday (April 26).
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said, “Another #OperationKaveri flight comes to Mumbai. 246 more Indians come back to the motherland.”
Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan, who saw them off in Jeddah, said that “our efforts to swiftly send Indians back home from Jeddah is paying”.
Chennai: With all her money and valuables taken away during the conflict in Sudan, Divya Rajasekharan who arrived from the African country, said she lost all hopes of returning to Sudan.
“A pair of dress and passport is all that I have now,” she said displaying them at the airport here on Thursday afternoon after she was flown to Chennai from the national capital.
Divya, among the first batch of 9 Tamils who were evacuated from the conflict-hit Sudan under Operation Kaveri, said the image of Sudan that she cherished during eight years of her life in that country took a steep plunge since the last 15 days.
“We thought that the war would end in a couple of days but our miseries increased from the third day,” she said accompanied by Sophia from Vellore. Her house was located close to the office of the para-military head. “My car, dollars, and other valuables were taken away and on the eighth day of the conflict we became nomads,” she said narrating her ordeal.
Fortunately, the Indian embassy got in touch with her and other Indians living in similar conditions and evacuated them to New Delhi.
While four who were from Madurai left directly for their hometown, five from Chennai and Vellore were flown to the airport here. “Now I have to start my life from scratch. I have no hopes of returning to Sudan,” Divya who hails from Madipakkam, here, said and thanked the central and state governments for their valuable help in rescuing them.
“We managed with curd rice and pickles but later got stranded without food and water. I am pregnant… It was at this juncture, the Indian embassy officials contacted us and advised us to reach the outskirts to remain safe till we were taken to port Sudan,” Sophia said.
Rajasekharan was shocked to see the military forces banging on his door. Anticipating trouble if he did not open, Rajasekharan mustered courage and opened the door. “I was asked if I was Indian. They assured that they would not harm us. They asked for food, water, and money and took our car away,” the IT professional said.
For its part, the State government set up control rooms at the Tamil Nadu House in Delhi and at the Commissionerate of Rehabilitation and Welfare of non-resident Tamils, Chennai, to facilitate the rescue operation.
Those from the State stranded in Sudan or their relatives could contact the Commissionerate on phone number: 9600023645 or mail to nrtchennai@gmail.com, it said.
