Abdalla Omer Bashir Elhusain, the ambassador of Sudan to India, described the continuing situation in Sudan as “sensitive,” and he welcomed India’s response and swift action to bring back its stranded residents in Sudan after the violence began in the country.
“The evacuation process which started a couple of days ago, has been going successfully till now. We took advantage of the ceasefire for the last few days, and most of the diplomatic missions, including the European Union, the US, France, and Jordan, have been evacuated. Yesterday, the evacuation of the Indian citizens have started, and actually, we have been working closely with the Ministry of External Affairs in India to arrange and coordinate this operation.
The estimated Indian citizens in Sudan is around 3000,” said the Sudanese Envoy . He also said, “The evacuation operation started from Port Sudan. A number of estimated between 300-500 Indian citizens have been evacuated by ship and other evacuation processes are going on. The evacuation process is a very sensitive process due to the political situation, due to the violation of the ceasefire. Due to the distance between Khartoum and Port Sudan, where most of the Indian citizens are staying, which is almost 1000 kilometres, they will have to go by road. So, it is very clear and obvious that this needs a lot of arrangements and coordination. We provided security and protection for the convoy from Khartoum towards Sudan. Hopefully, this operation will continue until all Indian citizens come back safe to their homes and to their families.”
Operation Kaveri was launched by India to evacuate Indians stranded in Sudan where the Sudanese Army and paramilitary groups are fighting. Indian Navy has also joined Operation Kaveri with INS Teg arriving at Port Sudan on Tuesday with additional officials and essential relief materials.
“I think I will appreciate and impressed about the response of the reaction of the Indian authorities and especially the people in Ministry of External Affairs. I have been working closely 24 hours a day and we really did a good job in coordinating cooperation, providing necessary permits for aircraft, for ships to fly and to land in Sudan and to bring back Indian citizens,” he added.
Speaking about the current situation, the Sudanese envoy said that there are still violations from the rebel side but the ceasefire is holding better than the previous ones.
“As regards to the current situation on the ground, I think the most important development is that now we’re witnessing the fourth ceasefire. The last three ceasefires were not so successful. But the fourth one, which is going through right now is holding on the ground relatively. I mean, there are still violations from the rebel side. But the ceasefire is holding better than the previous ones,” the Sudanese envoy said.
“I think it is understood that during such a situation of insecurity, of clashes, one of the most scary things, for example, is to bring our people from the shelter to the port of evacuation, in the airport or Port Sudan. So, it is really a very challenging operation, the evacuation of civilians during this time of uncertainty of clashes, it is very sensitive and in my understanding, the volume of problems we faced during this operation, relatively is reasonable”, he added.