Brave Rescue: Most Of The Hakki Pikki Tribe Members Flown To Safety Amid Sudan Conflict Under Operation Kaveri

India has successfully evacuated dozens of members of the Hakki Pikki tribe of Karnataka from war-torn Sudan, as part of the highly risky Operation Kaveri.

The community expressed their gratitude towards the government, elaborating on their journey from the western region of Darfur to the Saudi port of Jeddah via Port Sudan.

The Indian Embassy in Khartoum provided buses for them, which they used for four days and three nights.

“Our batch consisted of 71 Hakki Pikki members and we had to travel around around two thousand kilometres from El Fashir to Port Sudan. We were divided into two buses that carried us from El Fashir,” said Prabhu Dass, a member of the Hakki Pikki tribe, reports The Hindu.

The Hakki Pikkis, an extremely vulnerable tribal community of India, have been engaged in selling herbal products to various locations in Africa, ranging from Sudan to Central Africa.

Following the outbreak of fighting in Sudan, the Indian community in Port Sudan found refuge in a school in the city as a temporary hostel for Indian evacuees. Members of the Hakki Pikki tribe also stayed there for a night before being flown to Jiddah on a C-130J aircraft.

The conflict in Sudan broke out between the armed forces, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and a paramilitary force, known as the Rapid Support Forces and led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo on 15 April.