80 Indians heading back home from Yemen via Djibouti

New Delhi, March 28

As many as 80 Indians are leaving conflict-hit Yemen's Sanaa for Djibouti where Indian mission will assist them in returning home.

"Eighty Indians are leaving on Yemenia Airways' first flight from Sanaa today. They are headed to Djibouti where 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 today,” the spokesperson said.

There are some 3,500 Indians, most of whom are nurses, in various provinces of Yemen including Sanaa.

Mounting tensions in Yemen due to attacks by Shiite militiamen, Houthis, on the president and other state figures and air strikes by Yemen’s ally Saudi Arabia has caused many countries to issue advisories to their nationals.

The rising unrest has fuelled longtime divisions in Yemen, where the government, Houthis, southern separatists, powerful Sunni tribes and the local al Qaeda branch are all vying for influence. — PTI