Indian Air Force successfully evacuated 358 Indians from strife-torn Yemen in two groups. The first group of 168 people landed in Kochi last night and another group of 190 people landed in Mumbai on Thursday morning.

The Indian nationals, including nurses and workers, among others, reached home by the special flight–Indian Air Force’s C17 Globemasters– bringing an end to their about a week-long ordeal.

The flight carrying 190 people landed at around 3:25 AM at Mumbai international airports.

 

Defence sources said that the flight to Mumbai could not take off on time from Djibouti due to the pending paper work of the evacuees.

Evacuation from Yemen.
The big bird heads to Kochi from Djibouti. (Image: @MEAIndia/Twitter)

Many people did not have even their passports with them leading to delay in flight, the sources said.

Maharashtra Tourism and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prakash Mehta and MP Kirit Somaiya were present the airport to welcome the evacuees.  

They were part of as many as 350 Indians who reached Djibouti after being evacuated on a Navy vessel from Aden, the seaport city of Yemen.

Meanwhile, the Central Railway has offered free-of-cost travelling for the evacuees till their destinations.

The evacuation operation was a very difficult task as not much details were available with the IAF, Wing Commander Vikram Abbi, co-pilot of the flight, told PTI.

Map showing the territorial control in Yemen, with the latest clashes between the Saudi-led coalition and Houthi militias.

Abbi said that the crew were told about the rescue operation on March 30 and the flight departed from India yesterday.

One of the evacuees, Mary Amma Vargeese said, she was working as a nurse in a hospital in Aden for past two years. And, one day she suddenly “heard some exploding sound, after which I stopped going to work.”

 

“All the shops were closed, we didn’t have food for many days,” she said.

A spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry has said of the 350 evacuees, 206 belong to Kerala, 40 are from Tamil Nadu, 31 from Maharashtra, 23 from West Bengal and 22 from Delhi, besides other states.

The Indians were evacuated late Monday night by INS Sumitra, which was diverted from its anti-piracy patrol in the region. It waited for hours to get local clearances as heavy fighting was reported in the city.

(With inputs from PTI)