Deepak Agnihotri, a 26-year-old native of Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, narrated his harrowing experience of escaping the strife-torn Sudan, where he had been working since 2019. He, along with seven others, took refuge in a basement room amid constant bombings and gunfire between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force on the streets of Khartoum.
India has successfully evacuated over 1,950 of its citizens from Sudan since mid-April, and efforts continue to rescue more stranded individuals. Agnihotri and his companions maintained contact with the Indian embassy, eventually receiving clearance to drive to Port Sudan. From there, they traveled by boat to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, courtesy of their employer.
Under ‘Operation Kaveri’, India brought home 229 people on Sunday, following the earlier evacuation of 1,725 citizens in four separate batches. Agnihotri, along with others who had reached Jeddah, boarded an Indian Air Force transport aircraft to return home. Agnihotri mentioned that his wife had returned to India on March 31, as tensions escalated in Sudan, where deadly fighting between the country’s army and a paramilitary group has persisted for the last 15 days.
India has established a transit facility in Jeddah, with Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan overseeing the evacuation mission as part of ‘Operation Kaveri’.
