BHUBANESWAR: Several Indians heaved a sigh of relief on being brought back to the country from crisis-hit Sudan. Among them are six Odisha natives who reached the state on Friday.
Kedar Kumar Nayak (42) of Haram village at Tirtol in Jagatsinghpur district recounted the horror of being caught in the war zone. He was robbed of USD 150 by armed miscreants in the country where factions continue to battle over towns and cities. Nayak, who joined an Indian company, Omega Steel, in 2019 as a mechanical supervisor, said the situation worsened from April 15, and in the next five days fighters could be seen looting businesses and homes.
“Our company is located in Sobha area, around 30 km from Sudan’s capital Khartoum. Armed fighters started looting businesses and homes from April 20. A group of fighters armed with guns and knives targeted the accommodation provided to us by the company and threatened a native of Uttar Pradesh at gunpoint,” Nayak told The New Indian Express.
The fighters then went on a looting spree and took away mobile phones and luggage of many Indian employees working with the firm. “They took away my luggage and I was left with only a handbag consisting of two pairs of clothes,” he said. The robbers could not get hold of his mobile phone as he had managed to conceal it.
Nayak undertook a 12-hour long journey till Port Sudan in a bus arranged by his company. As part of India’s ‘Operation Kaveri’, Nayak along with many other Indians were evacuated from the crisis-hit nation on INS Sumedha and they managed to safely reach Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The evacuees then boarded a special flight to New Delhi.
Amar Kumar Bala (28), a native of Bhadrak, who had been working as a computer numeric controlled operator in Khartoum for the last two years had similar experience. He said Indians still stuck in Sudan are apprehensive due to robberies by armed miscreants. Apart from no electricity supply and limited rations, the Indians are living in a state of panic, he said.
They thanked the Centre for evacuating them from Sudan and the state government for arranging their stay at Odisha Bhawan in New Delhi on Thursday night and providing them air tickets to Bhubaneswar. The returnees are two each from Jagatsinghpur and Balasore districts and one each from Bhadrak and Ganjam. Sources said another 30 Odisha natives reached New Delhi from Sudan on Friday evening.