Tense wait for families still stranded in Yemen - Times of India

MUMBAI: The third round of evacuation for Indians stranded in war-torn Yemen's Aden city began on Saturday. With the situation turning volatile, destroyer class ship INS Mumbai did not enter the port city and the 450 evacuees were taken in batches of 30 to 35 from Aden to board the warship. The evacuees will be sent to India by sea or by air after INS Mumbai reaches Djibouti port.

Around 3,000 Indians remain stranded in different parts of Yemen and are awaiting evacuation and assistance by authorities soon.

The evacuation operation began on Saturday noon and lasted till late evening. "It took hours to evacuate the stranded Indians due to continuous firing in Aden. INS Mumbai was positioned at a certain distance off the port city due to navigational and operational reasons. Evacuation from Aden is being done on priority basis as heavy fighting is being reported," said an Indian Navy official.

"The third leg of the evacuation has begun. The environment in Aden is very hostile. Twelve speedboats have been hired by the Indian authorities to ensure swift transport of evacuees to INS Mumbai, which will then sail out of Aden and reach Djibouti by Sunday. Each batch will accommodate 30 to 35 evacuees," said the official.

The first two evacuation operations, named Operation Rahat, were carried out by patrol class vessel INS Sumitra from Aden port and Al Hodeidah port on the west coast. In the second batch, thirty-five out of the 306 evacuated on April 3 were Mumbaikars. They were all flown back on two IAF C-17 Globemasters late Friday. The first aircraft with 155 evacuees landed at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at 11.20pm and the second with 179 people five minutes later.

The evacuees hailed from different parts — Ahmedabad, Bellari, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Kerala, Lucknow, Madurai, Mumbai, Patna, Trichy, Tirunelveli, Vishakhapatnam.

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