Yemen crisis: Blitzkrieg of problems for stranded Indian sailors

By NewsGram Staff-Writer

Sana'a: Despite being assured on safe evacuation by Ministry of External Affairs, it appears sailors in Yemen are yet to get any assistance from Indian government.

According to a PTI report, one sailor in his audio message has spoken of a deadlock as "no help has reached" them and they are being bombed with war-planes.

Even after a fortnight, 70 Indians have been stuck in the war-torn country of Yemen. "We are still stranded here. No help has reached us. The situation here is very bad. We were on the boat when they launched air strike, it landed very close to us, if it landed any closer to us we would have been killed," the report revealed as it quoted a stranded Indian in the audio message.

"I am an Indian. My name is Sikandar. We are at Khokha port. They have lobbed three rockets and we somehow managed to save ourselves. We are running here and there to save ourselves," the victim stated.

"We are 70 Indians stranded here along with five ships. They have been bombarding us with warplanes. Please help us. We are Indians. We are in great difficulty. They will kill us. Please save us," he said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of External affairs has assured that initiatives are being taken for the stranded Indian sailors' safe rescue.

"Our mission in Yemen (Camp Office in Djibouti) is aware of the situation and taking steps to ensure safe evacuation of Indians," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup asserted.

As many as 70 seamen from the coastal village of Mandavi in Kutch and from Jodiya and Salaya villages of Jamnagar got trapped for over 15 days now at Khokha port in Yemen. All of them had gone to deliver cargo in five boats, a sailors' group stated in Gujarat and made an appeal to the government for their rescue.