Working towards safe evacuation of 70 Indian sailors from Yemen: Vikas Swarup

India is coordinating with the local authorities to ensure safe evacuation of its nationals from Yemen after a sailors group claimed that 70 seamen from Gujarat are stranded in the war-torn county.

"Our Mission in Yemen (Camp Office in Djibouti) is coordinating with local authorities (to ensure safe evacuation of Indians)," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said when asked about the action being taken to rescue the Indians.

Nearly 70 seamen from the coastal village of Mandavi in Kutch and from Jodiya and Salaya villages of Jamnagar were stuck for over 15 days now at Khokha port in Yemen where they had gone to deliver cargo in five boats, a sailors group said in Gujarat and appealed to the government to rescue them. It came days after six Indians, most of them from Gujarat, were killed when their boat came under Saudi-led air strikes in the Arab country.

The deceased were among seven Indian nationals who were initially reported missing when two boats, 'Mustafa' and 'Asmar' carrying a total of 21 Indian nationals came under aerial attack. The ministry had said that of the remaining 15 Indians, 14 were safe in Hodeidah while one person was still missing.

Yemen has been facing a civil war-like situation with Shiite rebels clashing with pro-government forces. United Nations estimates that more than 4,500 people have been killed in the conflict since March.