Great Indian rescue: Air evacuations end in Yemen, over 4,000 saved till now

New Delhi: The total number of Indian evacuees from war-ravaged Yemen on Tuesday touched 4000 mark with nearly 700 more nationals, including 600 from Sanaa, rescued in three air sorties as government decided to end the air evacuation operation on Wednesday. While 600 were rescued by Air India, over 100 were being evacuated from Al Hudaydah by INS Turkish, officials said. “We will end our air evacuation efforts from Sanaa tomorrow and all those who want to leave should do so by tomorrow,” the Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry said. [caption id=“attachment_2188679” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Rescue operations being carried out. PTI image[/caption] Asked about any remaining Indians, sources said 4100 Indians had registered with the Indian mission in Yemen and most of them are out. The government may continue the evacuation by sea route for some more time, they added. Meanwhile, 11 Indians who were evacuated by the Pakistan Navy’s Aslat from Yemen’s southeastern city of Mukallah reached Karachi today and are expected to return home tomorrow. Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh, who oversaw the rescue operation of Indians in Djibouti, was at Sanaa today to assess the ground situation. India had also received requests from 26 countries including the US, Bangladesh and Iraq for assistance in evacuating their nationals from the strife-torn country. While Pakistan has not sought help for the evacuation of its nationals, India during the operation also rescued Pakistani nationals. The evacuees were being taken to Djibouti from where they will fly back to India in an Indian Air Force aircraft. Official sources said the evacuation operation was going on notwithstanding the deteriorating situation across Yemen. Yemen has been witnessing fierce battle between Saudi-led coalition and Shiite rebels, who have battled their way into various cities Yemen including in the former stronghold of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi who has fled overseas. The Indian operations also witnessed a personal touch from External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj when she personally tweeted to a person who was stranded in the war-torn country with a eight-month son. But its not just its own nationals that are being evacuated by the Indian government from Yemen as countries across the world are frantically trying to get their citizens out of the country because of the deteriorating situation in Yemen. According to a CNN report, the Indian government has told the US that it will help rescue American citizens in Yemen. The US Embassy in Sanna put out an emergency message saying, “The Indian government has offered to assist U.S. citizens who want to depart Yemen for Djibouti.  This potentially includes flights out of Sana’a and ships from Aden.  U.S. citizens wishing to take advantage of this opportunity should contact First Secretary Raj Kopal at the Indian Embassy in Sana’a” India’s evacuation of more than 4,000 nationals from Yemen has been a triumph of improvisation, but some officials have said the crisis has underlined the need for a full-time staff to protect Indians abroad. Things got moving with the deployment of foreign office minister VK Singh to a forward operations base in Djibouti, on the other side of the Gulf of Aden, from where Indian Air Force C-17 transporters have been picking up evacuees brought out by Air India from Aden and flying them home. The Ministry of External Affairs has, however, rebutted criticism that it was slow to warn more than 4,000 Indians living in Yemen to leave, saying it issued the first of a series of advisories in January as the security situation deteriorated. “It was much more perilous, the circumstances were more turbulent, and diplomatically it was a tightrope walk,” said Akbaruddin.         A no-fly zone enforced in Yemeni airspace by international coalition has made it difficult to evacuate Indians by air, but India has been requesting Saudi Arabia to allow aerial sorties to Saana on daily basis.   with inputs from agencies