Indian Navy evacuates 400 people, including 80 individuals

Around 400 people, including 80 Indians were evacuated on Wednesday from strife-torn Yemen’s Al Hodeidah city by the Indian Navy. The evacuees, mostly foreigners, would be taken to Djibouti, a neighbouring country. India had closed down its Embassy in Sanaa on April 9 after winding up the air evacuation, officials said. India has so far evacuated nearly 1,000 foreign citizens from 41 countries along with 4,700 Indians, they added.

Indian Naval Ship ‘Sumitra’ left Yemen’s Al-Hodeidah Port in the evening with the Indians and 334 foreign nationals and they will disembark in Djibouti on Thursday, a Navy official said. ‘INS Sumitra’ undertook the last evacuation journey to Yemen this afternoon and rescued the people who wanted to leave the war-ravaged Arab country in Southwest Asia, he said. After ferrying the evacuees to Djibouti, the ship shall continue to remain in the Gulf of Aden, the official added. India launched ‘Operation Rahat’ on March 30 to bring back its nationals stranded in Yemen, where a Saudi Arabia-led coalition has launched fierce air-strikes to dislodge Houthi rebels, whose forward march to the capital Sanaa forced President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to flee the country.