I was given a task and I have done it: Gen VK Singh makes triumphant return after Yemen success

As India’s vast evacuation mission in Yemen ended on Thursday, Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh said that he had completed the task that had been given to him by the Prime Minister Modi and the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. [caption id=“attachment_2191453” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] #WelcomeGeneral began trending on Twitter as India’s Yemen operation ended. Image courtesy: Twitter[/caption] “I was given a task by the PM and External Affairs Minister in Yemen and I have done it,” said Singh. “Around 5,500 Indians and 1000 foreigners were evacuated from Yemen,” he said. “There are some Indians who didn’t want to leave Yemen. But we have evacuated all those who wanted to leave,” said the former army chief. “There has been firing around Sanaa. We faced difficulties during the operation but we completed the task,” he said. Singh, who was in Djibouti to oversee the massive evacuation operation, has landed at the Delhi airport. The External Affairs Ministry said a total of over 5,600 people were evacuated under the rescue operation. It said with the airlifting of over 630 persons from Sanaa today by three special Air India flights, India has concluded its air evacuation operations that had started on 3 April.

The evacuation operation from Yemen is over. General V.K.Singh is returning tonight. We are closing our Embassy there.

— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) April 9, 2015

People on Twitter praised Singh for the evacuation mission as #WelcomeGeneral became one of the top trends on Twitter.

The little boy Sunny is here to #WelcomeGeneral :-) pic.twitter.com/T3pvnOvXZU

— shilpi tewari (@shilpitewari) April 9, 2015

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We welcome our Nation Hero @Gen_VKSingh ji.He did very gud job By saving 4000+ Indians & Foreigners #WelcomeGeneral pic.twitter.com/piegJCBy7e

— Ram (@kulkarniram1) April 10, 2015

The youngest among the evacuees from Yemen was a six-day-old baby girl who arrived in Kochi early on Friday. The baby and her parents, Raji and Sash Kumar, were rescued from Sanaa, according to NDTV. The baby girl Parvati was diagnosed with jaundice and was being stabilised on an incubator at a hospital in Djibouti. Dr Uma Nambiar, a civilian doctor, was looking after the baby and accompanied her on the plane back home.

#YemenEvacuation Youngest evacuee, Parvati, 6 days old, will be arriving at Kochi from Saana via Djibouti at 0130 Hr. pic.twitter.com/5ImPVUjqxg

— Ministry of Defence, Government of India (@SpokespersonMoD) April 9, 2015

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The total number of Indians evacuated from largest Yemeni city of Sanaa by air crossed 2,900. They were evacuated by 18 special flights. In addition, Indian naval vessels have also evacuated over 1,670 Indians from Aden, Al Hudaydah and Al Mukalla ports in Yemen since 31 March, the MEA said. Indian Naval Ship INS Sumitra evacuated 349 persons, including 46 Indians and 303 foreign nationals from Al Hudaydah port on 9 April. “The entire evacuation effort has resulted in the evacuation of over 5,600 persons. These include over 4,640 Indian nationals and about 960 foreign nationals from 41 countries,” the External Affairs Ministry said. Yemen has been witnessing fierce battle between Saudi-led coalition and Shiite rebels, who have battled their way into various cities including Yemen in the former stronghold of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi who has fled overseas. (With inputs from PTI)