India exploring options to evacuate citizens from Sudan

Even as it is exploring options to evacuate its citizens caught up in conflict in Sudan, India has refrained from joining the United States, France, Germany and several other nations to condemn the violent clashes between the groups of soldiers loyal to two military leaders in the Northeastern African nation.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke to his counterpart in the Egyptian Government, Sameh Shoukry, on Thursday and discussed the “concerning situation” in Sudan, where a number of Kannadigas as well as people of other states of India got stranded since the clashes between the soldiers of the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) started late last week. “Deeply value his (Shoukry’s) assessments and insights, as also his very helpful attitude. Agreed to remain in close touch,” tweeted Jaishankar, who earlier had a war of words with the Congress leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over repatriation from Sudan of 31 people of the Hakki Pikki tribe of Karnataka.

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Cairo is believed to have thrown its weight behind the Sudanese Army, which has close ties with the Egyptian Army.

Jaishankar had earlier spoken to Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, his counterparts in the governments in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Riyadh and Abu Dhabi had been tacitly supporting the RSF.

“We are in readiness of taking multiple options. There are contingency plans. We are in close touch with our teams on the ground. But it will all depend on how long there is a pause in the fighting or a ceasefire; where it is happening, what is available in terms of locations where we can safely take people away,” Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said in New Delhi on Thursday. He was responding to a question from a journalist if India was planning to evacuate its citizens from Sudan. The External Affairs Minister is also expected to meet the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres in New York later on Thursday and discuss the situation in Sudan, added Bagchi.

The Embassy of India in Khartoum is located near the airport at the capital of Sudan. Since the area around the airport has been witnessing firefight between the two groups of soldiers, the stranded citizens of the country have been advised not to come to the embassy, which, however, is functioning, with officials working remotely.

“We are keeping a very close watch on the evolving situation there. Our mission in Khartoum has been in contact with the Indian community there through multiple channels – informal, formal,” said Bagchi.

He refused to reveal the numbers of citizens of India in Sudan and their locations, citing security implications.

“If the situation on the ground improves, if there is a pause in the fighting or there is a ceasefire, we will certainly take advantage of that primarily to first get the people to safer areas, provide food and water,”

"For the moment, it is a very tense situation where there is not too much of a respite from fighting although the intensity has been going up and down," he said.

New Delhi has been in touch with the US and the UK too. But the Embassy of India in Khartoum did not join the diplomatic missions of the US, Canada, Korea, Japan the UK and the European Union in the capital of Sudan to condemn continuing violence – including attacks directed against civilians, diplomats, and humanitarian actors – between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces. India refrained from lending its voice to the call by the western nations as well as Korea, Japan and Australia to both sides to end the violence, apparently because it was keen to avoid any move that could jeopardise its plans to help its citizens caught up in the conflict zones.