About half of the estimated 3,500 Indians stranded in strife-torn Sudan have been moved to areas of relative safety, foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kawatra said on Thursday; hours after the first batch of 360 evacuees reached India aboard a chartered flight from Saudi Arabia.

Another batch of 246 Indians is being flown into Maharashtra in a commissioned C17 flight, taking the number of evacuees back in India to 600 by Thursday evening.

India tapped into its contacts in both the warring factions of Sudan — the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces — to ensure the safe passage of Indian nationals from Khartoum to Port Sudan where three naval ships and two Indian Air Force aircraft are on standby to ferry them to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia for the final leg of the evacuation back home.

Briefing media persons on the evacuation exercise — named Operation Kaveri — Kawatra said there were approximately 3,500 Indian nationals and around 1,000 persons of Indian origin in Sudan when the conflict started on April 15. This estimate is based on the Indian embassy’s assessment and the number of people who have reached out to the mission after the fighting started.

Despite the patchy network and power outages, 3,100 people managed to register with the embassy while another 300 people reached out otherwise. With the help of the emergency communication networks put in place in anticipation of connectivity issues, the embassy was able to coordinate the movement of 1,700 Indians to secure locations whenever feasible, Kawatra said.

Other issues that cropped up during the evacuation from Khartoum to Port Sudan — 850km away — pertained to availability of buses and diesel. Also, emergency exit documents had to be arranged for many as not all had their travel documents with them.