Jeddah [Saudi Arabia]: Under Operation Kaveri, the 22nd batch with 135 stranded Indian evacuees have left on IAF C-130J aircraft from war-torn Sudan for Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah.
“22nd batch of evacuees leaves Port Sudan. 135 passengers are flying to Jeddah onboard IAF C-130J aircraft,” Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted on Thursday.
Earlier on Wednesday, 62 Indian nationals reached New Delhi.
The two warring factions in Sudan, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) agreed to a seven-day ceasefire, according to a statement from the foreign ministry of South Sudan on Tuesday.
In a telephonic conversation with South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit, the warring parties agreed to the seven-day truce from May 4 to 11.
“The two principals, General Abdel Fatah Al Burhan, the Chairman of the Sovereign Council and Commander in Chief of Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo Leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have agreed in principle for a seven-day truce from May 4th to 11th. They also agreed to name their representatives to the talks,” the statement read.
In the telephone conversation, South Sudan’s President stressed the importance of a longer ceasefire and naming of representatives to peace talks to be held at an agreed venue.
Neither SAF nor RSF commented on the report on their official channels.
Previous ceasefires haven’t been able to put an end to the violence between the opposing factions across the nation. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the commander of the Sudanese army, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the leader of the RSF, failed to reach an agreement, and in the middle of April, there were violent skirmishes between the two sides that resulted in at least 528 deaths and large-scale migration of refugees from the country, CNN reported.
Tuesday’s announcement came after the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) warned that more than 800,000 people may migrate to other nations as continuous violence impedes convoys to evacuate people from Sudan’s major ports.
