India's food aid arrives in Sudan as part of New Delhi's outreach amid COVID

India's 100 tonnes of food arrived for the African nation of Sudan at Port Sudan on Monday. The aid arrived on the Indian Naval ship INS Airavat and support comes even as New Delhi has reached out to four African countries amid COVID pandemic. These 4 African countries are--Sudan, South Sudan, Djibouti and Eritrea.

All in all, India is sending 270 MT tonnes of food aid to all four countries. Food aid comprises of 155 MT of wheat flour, 65 MT of rice and 50 MT of sugar. INS Airavat will make port calls at Mombasa, Massawa and Djibouti later.

The multi ministry mission involves the Indian Navy and the Ministry of Defense and External Affairs. A Navy release said that the mission is in "line with the Prime Minister’s vision of Security and Growth for All in the Region ‘SAGAR’ and highlights the importance accorded by India to relations with her maritime neighbours and further strengthens the existing bond."

The mission is being termed "Mission Sagar-II", given earlier this year India launched ‘Mission Sagar’ during the May-June period to provide food and medical aid to five countries in the Indian ocean to deal with the impact of the pandemic. These countries were--Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Comoros, and provided food aid and medicines.