New Delhi: As many as 80 Indians are leaving conflict-hit Yemen’s Sanaa for Djibouti where the Indian mission will assist them in returning home.
“80 Indians are leaving on Yemenia Airways’ first flight from Sanaa on Saturday. They are headed to Djibouti where the Indian mission will assist in their journey home,” the Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry said.
Concerned over the situation in Yemen, the ministry has been holding hectic intra-ministry parleys to explore ways to get its nationals out of the strife-torn country.
The ministry has also held inter-ministerial meeting to examine options available to government to assist Indian nationals in Yemen in current fragile security situation in which senior officials from ministries of Defence and Overseas Indian Affairs apart from Air India were present.
The ministry has also set up a 24-hour Control Room to monitor the situation in Yemen where all the airports have been shut down from Saturday, the Spokesperson said.
There are about 3,500 Indians, most of whom are nurses, in various provinces of Yemen including Sana’a.
Yemen is witnessing attacks by Shiite militiamen on the president and other state figures. The rising unrest has fuelled longtime divisions in Yemen, where the government, Huthis, southern separatists, powerful Sunni tribes and the local al-Qaeda branch are all vying for influence.