Situation in Yemen deteriorating: Evacuated national

The Indian nationals evacuated from strife-hit Yemen on Friday said that the situation in the Middle East country has deteriorated, while appreciating the government's speedy rescue efforts. Mohammad Tahir, who was on-board the last flight to reach India, said that the situation in Yemen has deteriorated.

"The situation in Yemen has become worse. There is a lot of shelling and bombing going on. Our government has taken swift action to evacuate citizens to India. We were taken to Djibouti and from there we were flown to Kochi. The government is taking us to our exact destination and we are also given a travel expense of Rs. 2,000," he said

Earlier, Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs General (retired) V.K Singh said that the credit for the successful mission goes to the coordinated response by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), The Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force. This followed a confirmation by the MEA that over 630 people had been rescued from Sana'a in Yemen by three special Air India flights, concluding India's air evacuation process.

The total number of Indians evacuated from Sana'a by air has crossed 2,900 by 18 special flights since the beginning of the air operations. Indian naval vessels have also evacuated over 1,670 Indians from Aden, Al Hudaydah and Al Mukalla ports in Yemen since March 31.

Indian Naval Ship INS Sumitra evacuated 349 persons, including 46 Indians and 303 foreign nationals from Al Hudaydah port on April 9. The entire evacuation effort has resulted in the evacuation of over 5600 persons. These include over 4,640 India n nationals and about 960 foreign nationals from 41 countries.