SUDAN CRISIS: INDIA PROVING ITS METAL ONCE AGAIN AMID ARMED CONFLICT DESPITE RELUCTANCE ON PART OF OTHER COUNTRIES TO EVACUATE THEIR NATIONALS
THE BACKDROP OF THE EVENT
The civilian government had already been thrown out of power in Sudan when the military took over
by a coup. Then the military and main paramilitary force of the country turned against each other and
that resulted in utter mayhem.
The streets of Khartoum bear testimony to the most gruesome bloodshed witnessed in the recent past. Scenes of People including a good number of teenagers carrying AK-47 assault rifles around and firing them aimlessly have become a common phenomenon.
The chaos is so rampant that native people are fleeing the country by any means possible. In this
armed conflict, hundreds of foreigners are facing imminent danger to their life and loved-ones. While
countries as powerful as U.S have limited their evacuation plan to the diplomats posted there, India
has launched a full-fledged plan to evacuate all Indians who are in distress without any prejudice. Till
date India has evacuated close to 4000 people under operation ‘Kaveri’ and plans are underway to
secure the safe homecoming of those who are still stranded.
THE INDIAN EVACUATION STRATEGY
The external affairs ministry made precise arrangements for evacuation at the eleventh hour. The
large-scale operation has been termed as operation ‘Kaveri’ The country of Saudi Arabia has had a
prominent role in furthering the Indian strategy. Other countries such as France have been nothing less than an ally in terms of the shared vision of evacuation of foreign nationals.
India has not completely relied on its partners for the evacuation rather we deployed our own assets at the port of Sudan to facilitate the safe passage of citizens. India has deployed several C-130J aircrafts and the Naval ship INS Sumedha at the port of Sudan. However, the role of Saudi Arabia has been important as after crossing the red sea it is the closest country to Sudan which makes the journey back home quite convenient for citizens stuck there.
Fig 2. The route-map of evacuation strategy
Fig 3. People being evacuated by the aircrafts under operation Kaveri
Deja-vu
The present evacuation event is not the first or even one of the more prominent ones. Recently only
the Indian armed forces led by the central government rescued hundreds of Indians form Ukraine and
Yemen under operation ganga and Rahat respectively.
The feather of the largest evacuation in the history of mankind is also in the Indian cap. In the 1990s, Kuwait was under heavy attack by Iraq which resulted in a lot Indians being left stranded there amidst the war. The stranded Indians in Kuwait were to the tune of 1.7 lakh, thereafter Air India conducted non-stop flight operations and within two months India rescued and safely brought home over 1 lakh Indians. Air India got penned down in the Guinness book of world-record for conducting the largest-ever air evacuation mission.
Even the evacuation in Afghanistan by U.S seems relatively small-scaled when put in parallel to
operation ganga.
ANALYSIS OF THE EVENT AND WAY FORWARD
India has always believed in equality of all and preservation of human life over everything else.
Taking a bird’ eye view to see all the evacuation missions that have been conducted by us so far, one
would notice that there is pattern to it.
The pattern makes it clear that regardless of the difficulties and
complexities India has always endeavoured to secure every single individual. We ought to be proud of
the fact we have never left behind a brother or sister in need whereas in other countries they attach
priority status to their population and accordingly decide who might be left behind to die while the
more important people remain unscathed.
Moving on to a different tangent, in the past our not so
cordial relations with other countries were an impediment to sound foreign policy, that has changed now considerably. The recent evacuation only shows the kind of foreign support India enjoys today
from countries of Europe to that of middle-east.
This level of support and cooperation is particularly
important today because the world is turning into a war-zone where every second country has some
kind of conflict going on which may the take the form of war at any given instance. Hence it is
imperative for a country such as India which has diaspora living in literally every inhabited place on
the earth to be prepared and the preparation must be both internal and external in terms of self-
capacity building and increased cooperation.
At last, every country has an obligation to its people no
matter where they are and a state is not truly one in the sense of the word till its people know for a fact
that regardless of where we live or work, we are constantly under the protection of our country and
our brothers and sisters stand in solidarity with us. When this happens then only, we rise to the stature
which our forefathers once envisioned for us.
