A picture tweeted by Union minister VK Singh on the last day of evacuation operation from Yemen
New Delhi: India on Thursday concluded its evacuation mission, Operation Rahat, in Yemen with Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeting, "The evacuation operation from Yemen is over. General V.K.Singh is returning tonight. We are closing our Embassy there."
India has so far evacuated 5,600 people, including 4,640 of its nationals and 960 nationals from 41 countries, from Yemen, the government said as it airlifted 630 people by three special Air India flights from Sana'a yesterday.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin in a series of tweets said that the security situation in Yemen has deteriorated further with a bomb blast at Aden port on Thursday.
In another tweet, he said the Indian embassy in Sana'a "will need to shut operations and relocate its personnel" to Al Hudaydah where Indian naval ships would be berthed to carry out evacuation of remaining Indian nationals over the next two days.
"The total no. of Indians evacuated from Sana'a by air has crossed 2,900 by 18 special flights since the beginning of the air operations," he tweeted.
"Indian naval vessels have also evacuated over 1,670 Indians from Aden, Al Hudaydah and Al Mukalla ports in Yemen since 31 March," he posted.
"Indian Naval Ship INS Sumitra evacuated 349 persons, including 46 Indians and 303 foreign nationals from Al Hudaydah port on April 9," he said.