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Air Force plane carrying 246 Indians evacuated from war-torn Sudan lands in Mumbai

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An Indian Air Force aircraft with 246 Indians evacuated from war-torn Sudan landed in Mumbai on April 27.

The plane, which took off from Jeddah around 11 a.m. IST, landed here at 3.15 p.m., an official said. The passengers included at least two on wheelchairs.

“Another #OperationKaveri flight comes to Mumbai. 246 more Indians come back to the motherland,” External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar tweeted.

The first batch of 360 Indians arrived in New Delhi on April 26.

“Our efforts to swiftly send Indians back home from Jeddah is paying. 246 Indians will be in Mumbai soon, travelling by IAF C17 Globemaster. Happy to see them off at Jeddah airport,” tweeted Union minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan minutes before the plane left for Mumbai.

Under ‘Operation Kaveri’, India has been taking its citizens in buses from conflict zones of Khartoum and other troubled areas to Port Sudan from where they are being taken to the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah in Indian Air Force’s heavy-lift transport aircraft and Indian Navy’s ships.

The distance between Khartoum and Port Sudan is around 850 km and the travel time by bus varies from 12 hours to 18 hours considering the prevailing situation and whether the vehicles are operating during the day or night.

Earlier, INS Tarkash from the Indian Navy reached Port Sudan to help in the evacuation of stranded Indians, said Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra. Announcing the latest developments regarding “Operation Kaveri” that is currently under way, Mr. Kwatra said India is “extremely grateful” to Saudi Arabia for the support that it has provided to the evacuation of its citizens so far and assured that India will do “all that it requires to be done” to help its citizens in Sudan. 

Editorial | Rescue service: On ‘Operation Kaveri’ and Sudan

“On April 25, INS Sumedha brought 278 Indian nationals. It’s the same INS Sumedha which has gone back and redocked today. Two sorties of C-130J brought in 121 and 135 passengers respectively. Yesterday on 26 th April, another batch of 297 Indians have sailed out on INS Teg and two more sorties of C-130J to evacuate 264 Indians,” said Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra giving an update about the Indians and the people of Indian origin who have so far been evacuated. 

INS Tarkash is the third ship to join the evacuation which is also being supported by INS Sumedha and INS Teg. The ships are being used to ferry stranded Indians from Port Sudan to the Saudi port of Jeddah from where they are being flown to India. “The pockets of concentration of Indians are in Khartoum city and its suburbs. There are also pockets in Omdurman, Port Sudan. As soon as the fighting broke out in Khartoum, our embassy immediately alerted and reached out to as many members of the Indian community as they could,” said Mr. Kwatra. 

Foreign Secretary Kwatra said India has set up control rooms in Jeddah and Port Sudan that are coordinating with the headquarter here and said the evacuation has to deal with factors such as lack of diesel and buses on the ground. He also mentioned that 42 Indian nationals were evacuated to South Sudan. “There were evacuation requests from other nationalities also. From our side we are willing to provide all possible assistance to everybody who approaches us for such assistance,” said Mr. Kwatra explaining that such a process would have to take into account the transit country – Saudi Arabia which may require fulfilment of certain procedures to be completed. 

Also read: Explained | A quick guide to the unfolding crisis in Sudan

Mr. Kwatra praised the support from the Saudi authorities saying, “We have been working very closely with the government of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi leadership and they have been extremely helpful, supportive and cooperative in this endeavour and we are extremely grateful to them for that because the positioning of our control room in Jeddah and providing of our assets who would bring back the stranded Indians in Jeddah — whether of air force and Navy — we have had excellent support and cooperation from the Saudi authorities.“

Indian citizens who were evacuated from Sudan outside Mumbai International Airport on Thursday.
| Photo Credit:
Emmanual Yogini 

Mr. Kwatra described the situation in Sudan as “highly volatile and unpredictable” and said India is in touch with both the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces to ensure safety of the Indians nationals. India has been aiming to bring Indians to the “greater safety zone” as the first step and then shift them to Port Sudan before evacuating them to India via Jeddah. “Substantial number of buses are currently on their way from Khartoum city to Port Sudan. Approximately 1,700 to 2,000 people have already moved out of from the conflict zone,” he said without getting into the specificity of the numbers. Mr. Kwatra described the condition of the Sudanese capital as “volatile”. 

He assured that India is willing to help the People of Indian Origin (PIOs) in Sudan and will help them. “There are roughly 900 to 1,000 persons of Indian origin in Sudan. These are persons of Indian origin living in Sudan for over hundred years. They have deep roots in that society,” said Mr. Kwatra promising them “all assistance to them” if they so request. 

Jaishankar discusses Sudan situation with U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly

External Affairs Minister S, Jaishankar has spoken to U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and discussed the evolving situation in Sudan, as India stepped up efforts to evacuate its stranded citizens from the strife-torn African country.

Mr. Jaishankar, who arrived in Bogota in Colombia’s capital from Panama, on April 24, announced the launch of the mission ‘Operation Kaveri’ to bring back the stranded Indians from Sudan that has been witnessing fierce fighting following a power struggle between the regular army and the RSF.

“Spoke to U.K. Foreign Secretary @JamesCleverly just now. Discussed the evolving situation in Sudan,” he tweeted on April 27.

U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on April 25 that his government has commenced a “large-scale” evacuation effort to help British nationals leave Sudan.

“The government has begun a large-scale evacuation of British passport holders from Sudan on RAF flights. Priority will be given to the most vulnerable, including families with children and the elderly,” Mr. Sunak tweeted.

Mr. Jaishankar took to Twitter to share images of the Indian evacuees after their arrival at the Delhi airport.

“India welcomes back its own. Operation Kaveri brings 360 Indian nationals to the homeland as first flight reaches New Delhi,” he tweeted.

“OperationKaveri takes more steps forward. Another 136 Indian Nationals have been moved to safety in Jeddah. They will come home soon,” he said in another tweet.

A video on Indians evacuated from Sudan
| Video Credit:
The Hindu Bureau

Mr. Jaishankar is on a nine-day trip to Guyana, Panama, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic, his first visit as the external affairs minister to these Latin American countries and the Caribbean.

670 Indians evacuated

India has evacuated at least 670 Indian nationals from Sudan and is looking to rescue more of its citizens from the strife-torn African nation before the end of a tenuous ceasefire between the regular army and a paramilitary force.

Sudan has been witnessing deadly fighting between the country’s army and a paramilitary group for the last 12 days that has reportedly left around 400 people dead.

India stepped up its efforts to evacuate the Indians from Sudan after a 72-hour truce was agreed between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces following intense negotiations.

(With inputs from PTI)



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UN Security Council does not reflect today’s realities, is paralysed: UNGA President

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The UN Security Council does not reflect today’s realities, is paralysed and unable to discharge its basic function of maintaining international peace and security when one of its permanent members has attacked its neighbour, UN General Assembly President Csaba Korosi has said.

Mr. Korosi, a Hungarian diplomat currently serving as President of the 77th United Nations General Assembly, said that there is a push from a growing membership to reform the powerful UN organ.

“The Security Council which has been created back then” and given the primary responsibility of maintaining “international peace and security and preventing wars now is paralysed,” he told PTI ahead of his visit to India.

Mr. Korosi will arrive in India on Sunday on a three-day visit at the invitation of External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. It is his first bilateral visit to any country since he assumed his role as President of the UN General Assembly in September 2022.

“The Security Council cannot discharge its basic function for a very simple reason. One of the permanent members of the Security Council attacked its neighbour. The Security Council should be the body to take action against the aggression. But because of the veto power, the Security Council cannot act,” he said, in a reference to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mr. Korosi said this was a “very serious lesson learnt” for the future when talking about how to improve functioning of global organisations.

He said that the issue of UNSC reform is both “burning” and “compelling” since the composition of the Security Council reflects “the outcome of the Second World War”.

India has been at the forefront of the years-long efforts to reform the Security Council, saying it rightly deserved a place as a permanent member in the United Nations.

Currently, the UNSC has five permanent members – China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the US. Only a permanent member has the power to veto any substantive resolution.

In the 77-year-old history of the UN, the composition of the Security Council has been altered only once – in 1963 when the General Assembly decided to expand the Council from 11 to 15 members, with the addition of four non-permanent seats.

“Since then, the world has changed. The geopolitical relations in the world altered, the economic responsibilities in the world in some countries, including in India, including some other very strongly developing countries, actually changed,” Mr. Korosi said.

“So, the composition of the Security Council does not reflect today’s realities,” he said adding that not to mention “a whole continent with 50 plus countries, Africa,” is not in (the Council) in terms of permanent members.

In response to a question on whether he has hope for any forward movement in the long-pending UNSC reform, Mr. Korosi replied in the affirmative.

“Yes, I do have hope,” he said, noting that reform of the United Nations entails several areas and Security Council is “a very important” part of it.

Mr. Korosi stressed the reason for hope of the UNSC reforms is that the issue has been on the agenda for decades and negotiations have been going on for several years.

“But this particular issue, the urgency and concrete steps to be achieved in the reform of Security Council” has been mentioned and urged for by over 70 leaders of the world during the high-level UN General Assembly session last September.

“More than one-third of the UN membership directly addressed this question. So, there’s very clearly a push (from) the membership. I do have hopes,” he said.

Mr. Korosi has previously noted that during the high-level week in September 2022, one-third of world leaders underscored the urgent need to reform the Council – more than double the number in 2021.

Mr. Korosi has appointed Permanent Representative of the Slovak Republic to the United Nations Michal Mlynar and Permanent Representative of the State of Kuwait Tareq M.A.M. Albanai as co-chairs of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on UNSC reform.

He said he has asked them to do their best to try and convince the UN membership that it is their responsibility and a membership-driven process to achieve UNSC reforms.

“But if they really want to achieve results, they may think in little bit different terms, in terms of whether or not they could make compromises, negotiations. If they don’t do that, the chances will be very small. But I do have hopes,” he said.

Mr. Korosi said nations around the world would like to see the United Nations, an organisation they finance, cater to their needs, help them navigate the multifold crises, ease conflicts in the world, and bring wars to an end.

“If this organisation fails because of the Security Council, because of any other part, the whole organisation fails,” he said, adding that the credibility of the UN is at stake.

Last week, the G4 countries of India, Brazil, Japan and Germany told a meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on Security Council reform that “we have been meeting in this informal format for 15 years now, with nothing concrete to show for our efforts.”

“We do not even have a zero-draft consolidating the attributed positions of interested stakeholders, to base our discussions on. We do not have a single factual account or record of the IGN proceedings,” they said.

The G4 has said that expansion in both permanent and non-permanent categories of UNSC membership is “by far the one that garners the most support from Member States and is the only way to make the Council more representative, effective, transparent and legitimate.”

Mr. Korosi’s visit coincides with the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination on January 31, observed as Martyrs’ Day.

Mr. Korosi will lay a wreath at Raj Ghat to mark the anniversary of Gandhi’s death. Mr. Jaishankar, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Korosi jointly unveiled the bust of Gandhi at the expansive North Lawns in the UN headquarters last month.

Mr. Korosi said he will be “very proud” to be able to lay a wreath at the Raj Ghat.

He described Gandhi as “one of my prophets” in terms of political philosophy, solutions through peace, traditions, cooperation and building on cultural values.

These are the issues he offered to the global community and “these values are still ours, and they’re still very valid,” Mr. Korosi said.

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