Five days on, what’s the progress with repatriation efforts?
Since the fighting began in Sudan earlier this month on April 15th, thousands of civilians within the country's urban areas have become unwitting victims. Some governments have since conducted rescue operations to safely extract evacuating citizens from the crisis-affected regions of Sudan, including India, which launched Operation Kaveri, keeping with its recent tradition of naming repatriation efforts from across the globe.
Among the many was the Indian government, which in coordinated efforts with the Indian embassy in Sudan, launched a rescue and evacuation operation known as 'Operation Kaveri' on April 24th. The rescue operation is led by a team of officials, including some Indian ministers, the Indian Air Force, and members of the Indian embassy.
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India has also successfully established a transit facility based in Jeddah, whereby the Minister of State for External Affairs, V Muraleedharan, oversees the organization for a smooth-running evacuation of the country. During the evacuation, the rescued Indians will be transferred from the capital and center of fighting in Khartoum to the Port of Sudan, from where they will then be flown back to Jeddah and then India.
While it sounds complicated and dangerous, the team of officials has made it work as on the first day of 'Operation Kaveri,' the Indian government announced the successful evacuation of approximately 360 Indians back to the homeland as the first flight using a C-17 Globemaster touched down at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport.
Today, marking the fifth day since 'Operation Kaveri' was launched, the rescue operation has completed more than 12 rounds of repatriations from Sudan to Jeddah. At least five flights have brought over a thousand Indians back from Jeddah to the homeland, with this day bringing back approximately 754 people.
However, in light of the worsening violence in Sudan, the officials know that the repatriation pace has to quicken. Although the use of military aircraft has been efficient, 'Operation Kaveri' requires additional capacity for a quickened pace. This is why low-cost carrier IndiGo has chipped in to support the rescue operation.
And in fact, the airline helped to operate the fifth outbound flight via an Airbus A321neo, and another flight has already been scheduled on April 30th to bring even more people home, as highlighted by Muraleedharan:
"IndiGo joins Operations Kaveri with 231 Indians on a flight to New Delhi from Jeddah. With this fifth outbound flight, nearly 1,600 Indians have reached or are already airborne for India. May they have a happy journey, and our mission continues."
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Besides IndiGo, other Indian carriers have already expressed their utmost willingness to participate in 'Operation Kaveri' and bring more Indians home. However, IndiGo still awaits details from the government to add more chartered repatriation flights, while the other airlines are waiting on more information and approvals to launch such flights.
As more airlines will eventually, and hopefully, chip in, 'Operation Kaveri' will likely go on quicker to bring even more people safely home. And hopefully, the evacuations will continue as smoothly as it has been ongoing thus far.
Source: Newsx
Journalist – Charlotte is currently pursuing a full-time undergraduate degree majoring in Aviation Business Administration and minoring in Air Traffic Management. Charlotte previously wrote for AirlineGeeks. Based in Singapore.