A total of 97 people hailing from Karnataka were on Friday brought to Bengaluru from war-torn Sudan, taking the total number of evacuees from the state to 439.
This leg of Operation Kaveri also saw a challenging evacuation of 80 people who were stranded in the town of Al-Fashir, located about 1,800 km west of Port Sudan.
The Indian Embassy operated two buses to pick them up but their journey to Port Sudan was hit by breakdowns and subsequent changing of buses. Manoj Rajan, Commissioner, Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority, said the evacuees exhibited exceptional courage all through the journey. All the 80 evacuees arrived at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), from where they headed to Mysuru, Shivamogga and Davanagere, in KSRTC buses.
The 97 evacuees, 53 men and 44 women, arrived at KIA in three batches – 18 in a flight from Addis Ababa, 53 in a flight from Jeddah and 26 in a Jeddah-Delhi-Bengaluru flight. Two passengers from the second batch have been quarantined at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases.
On Friday, 16 other evacuees hailing from Karnataka arrived, in two batches, in Mumbai.
Of the 439 people from the state brought home since April 27, 194 are from Shivamogga and 116 are from Mysuru.
Published 05 May 2023, 17:06 IST