Headlines
Naval ship to ferry 300 more Indians from Yemen
New Delhi, April 2
An Indian naval ship was
waiting to leave the Yemeni port of Al Hodeidah, on the western coast,
to ferry another batch of more than 300 Indian nationals out of the
strife-torn Gulf country as 358 Indians were flown back to India on
Thursday.
According to defence ministry spokesperson Sitanshu
Kar, the second batch of Indian nationals have been told to assemble in
Al Hodeidah to wait for INS Sumitra, which was awaiting clearance from
the local Yemeni authorities to enter the port.
Minister of State
for External Affairs V.K. Singh, who is in Djibouti since Tuesday to
coordinate the evacuation operations with the Indian Navy and the Indian
Air Force, met Djibouti Foreign Minister Mohamoud Ali Youssouf to thank
him.
All Indian nationals have been taken by sea from Yemen to
Djibouti, which is on the Horn of Africa, from where they are being
flown back to India on board Globemaster transport planes.
"Diplomacy
in support of evacuation efforts, MoS @Gen_VKSingh thanks Foreign
Minister Mohamoud Ali Youssouf of Djibouti," tweeted external affairs
ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin.
In the early morning hours
of Thursday, 358 Indians arrived safely back in India, at Kochi and
Mumbai airports, after being evacuated from Yemen.
One C-17 Globemaster ferried 190 Indians to Mumbai on Thursday while another 168 went to Kochi in Kerala.
Fighting
has been raging in Yemen since January 22 when the government under
President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was ousted by Shia Houthi militia.
Saudi Arabia has been heading air strikes on Yemen with a coalition of
10 countries.
Of the 350 Indians evacuated, 206 belong to Kerala,
40 are from Tamil Nadu, 31 from Maharashtra, 23 from West Bengal, 22
from Delhi, 15 from Karnataka and 13 from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,
according to tweets by Akbaruddin.
Two warships -- destroyer INS
Mumbai and stealth frigate INS Tarkash -- are also on their way to
Djibouti as part of an operation named "Op Raahat".
India has
also agreed to requests from neighbours Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to
assist in evacuation of their nationals from Yemen.