Aden attack: Indian Mother Superior of aid home to be evacuated

The Indian government will shift, out of Yemen, the Indian mother superior of an aid home in Aden where four nuns including were killed and an Indian priest kidnapped in an attack by gunmen on Friday, said Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy.

Speaking to IANS, Chandy said that after he spoke to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday night, Indian embassy officials from Djibouti have established contacts with Sister Sally, the mother superior of the old age home run by the Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity, who hails from Kerala.

"I managed to speak to Sally a while ago and she said that she has been contacted by Indian embassy officials from Djibouti who are expected to come to take her with them on Monday. In her place (Yemen), there is no Indian embassy or any officials.

"She said that things are not that smooth where she is and there is no information about the priest Tom Kuzhuvennal, who hails from Kottayam district and was taken away by these unidentified gunmen," he said.

Chandy added that Sally was lucky to escape the attackers as she, along with a few locals, saved herself by hiding when these gunmen created mayhem.

He said that according to reports that he got, these gunmen tied the arms and hands of the priest and took him with them.

"She also said that there is no information about the priest," said Chandy.

In the gunfire, four nuns of the Missionaries of Charity, including one from India, were killed. The Indian nun has been identified as Sister M. Anseleme, 57, from Jharkhand. Of the other three nuns, two were from Rwanda and another from Kenya.

The home, set up by Mother Teresa in 1992, houses 61 elderly destitutes and the Kerala priest had come to the home from an insecure place in Yemen.

An official attached to Chandy's office, who is in constant touch with the convent and with Keralites in and around the place, told IANS that he has been told that things are fluid there.

It has now been established that that these unidentified gunmen belonged to the Yemen-based affiliate of the Islamic State (IS) group.