Bhubaneswar: As many as six Odisha natives departed the conflict-hit Sudan and Friday landed at Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar, said a source.
The returnees hail from the Khordha, Balasore, Bhadrak and Jagatsinghpur districts of the state. They were evacuated from Sudan under mission ‘Operation Kaveri’ being undertaken by the Union government.
According to one of the returnees, the situation in Sudan is horror-inducing. After being cut off from electricity, the company they were working for somehow managed two-time meals for them. He added that their valuable items were looted at gunpoint.
Notably, the clash between military and paramilitary forces took a violent turn in Sudan April 15.
According to another returnee, due to bombing and shooting between the forces, he was unable to sleep for nine days.
However, they somehow managed to contact the Indian Embassy and took a bus to Port Sudan from where they sailed in INS Sumedha to India.
According to Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra, there were approximately 3,500 Indians and 1,000 Persons of Indian Origins (PIOs) in Sudan.
At the time of filing this news, operation Kaveri is still underway.
PNN