India to airlift from Yemen

India will be airlifting its nationals now stranded in strife-torn Yemen after getting permission from the authorities there to fly from Sana’a for three hours a day.

India will also be using the sea route to get its nationals back home and is likely to use a civilian ves- sel for this purpose.

An Air India official said the national carrier had been put on “standby” and was on “alert”, ready to act as per any government instructions.

The government may soon chalk out a schedule for Air India sorties to evacuate all Indian nationals from the conflictridden West Asian country.

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said India will do its best to evacuate people from Yemen.

“Today we got permission to fly from Sana’a for three hours a day. We will use the slot for evacuating our citizens every day,” external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted. “In addition we are sending a ship with a capacity of 1,500 passengers,” she added.

This comes a day after 80 Indians were evacuated from Sana’a and flown out. “We are doing everything to evacuate our people from Yemen at the earliest by all routes — land, sea and air,” Ms Swaraj also tweeted.

On Saturday, 80 Indians left Sana’a in a commercial aircraft for Djibouti in Africa, where the Indian mission there will assist them in returning home. The MEA has also set up a 24hour control room to monitor the situation in Yemen. There are about 3,500 Indians, most of whom are nurses, in various provinces of Yemen, including Sana’a.

According to reports, Yemen is witnessing attacks by Shia militiamen on the President and other state figures. The rising unrest has fuelled long-time divisions in Yemen, where the government, Huthis, the southern separatists, powerful Sunni tribes and the local Al Qaeda branch are all vying for influence.