JOIN USTwo Air India flights landed in Yemen's capital Sana'a to pick up 351 stranded Indians, who were brought to Djibouti, from where they flew for India, thanks to the establishment of an air bridge between Muscat and Sana'a.
Naval vessel INS Sumitra, which had evacuated 306 people on Thursday from the port town of Al Hodeidah on the western coast of Yemen also reached the African coast on Friday morning. In the evening, two Indian Air Force C-17 Globemasters took off from Djibouti with 334 passengers for Mumbai.
In addition, an Air India Boeing 777, slated to land first in Kochi and then proceed to Mumbai, is also ferrying more than 300 passengers from Djibouti.
Two Air India A320 planes with a capacity of 180 each have been waiting for approvals for the last 72 hours in Muscat. On Friday they operated as a shuttle service between Sana'a and Djibouti after a green signal from the Saudi government, and will continue to do so for the next couple of days.
Four Indian ships—two naval vessels and two island ferries—are expected to enter the Djibouti port on Saturday night to ferry back more Indians to Muscat. Nearly 2,500 Indian nationals are waiting in Sana'a to flee strife-torn Yemen, said a Ministry of External Affairs spokesman, adding that there would be four sorties by the Air India planes on Friday and that the government was hoping to rescue over 500 nationals.
The Operation Raahat is being supervised by Minister of State for External Affairs Gen (retd) V K Singh, who is in Djibouti.