4000 Indian nationals rescued from war-torn Yemen; air evacuations to end today
SAANA/NEW DELHI : Mission Accomplished. The government is looking to wrap up Operation Raahat with almost all the estimated 4000 Indians in Yemen evacuated safely from the war zone.
The Indian Navy’s INS Tarkash will reach Djibouti from Al Hodeidah with 74 people this morning and the INS Sumitra will reach Al Hodeidah, to ferry out one of the last batches. Air India will run its last evacuation flights from Yemeni capital Sana’a and the government has asked all Indians who want to leave to reach the capital.
On Monday, India rescued more than 1,000 people by plane and ship, the second time in two days that such a large number have been brought out since Saudi Arabia launched air strikes against Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen on March 26. India has been asked by 26 nations – including the United States – to help get their citizens out of the conflict zone.
The Indian Navy Ship Mumbai, a premier warship, rescued nearly 1000 people from nine countries in two batches. Though not designed to ferry people, the Mumbai carried one and a half times the number of crew on board.
The crew emptied five messes and their cabins so that women and children got bunks to sleep on. Hot food was served and doctors were at hand.Other warships, the INS Sumitra and the INS Tarkash have done a similar job across the coast of war-torn Yemen.
While the Navy has ferried people across the Red Sea to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, the Indian Air Force has been flying the Indians back home on C 17 Globemasters.
One Yemeni woman married to an Indian even got the prompt attention of Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj after she tweeted her.
Sabah Shawesh and her eight-month-old baby Ryan are back home in Mumbai now. “I am so much thankful to her and to all her incredible team who did the whole process of evacuation,” Sabah said.
11 Indians who were evacuated by the Pakistan Navy’s Aslat from Yemen’s southeastern city of Mukallah reached Karachi and are expected to return home today.
More than 540 people have died and 1,700 have been wounded in Yemen since March 19, the World Health Organization has said. At least 74 children had been killed since the coalition strikes began – though the real figure is thought to be much higher – and more than 100,000 have been displaced, the UN said.
