Andhra Pradesh expatriate returnees from Sudan increases to 98: Official

The number of Andhra Pradesh expatriates who returned from strife-torn Sudan safely to India rose to 98, said Andhra Pradesh Non-Resident Telugu Society (APNRTS) chief executive P Hemalatha Rani on Friday.

Out of the 98, 97 have returned to their hometowns while the remaining one person is expected to reach Vijayawada on Saturday.

"Of all the people who landed at airports in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kochi, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, AP government has returned 63 of them to their hometowns via air and roadways at its own expense," said Venkat S Medapati, president of APNRTS, in a statement shared by the society.

Medapati noted that some returnees who did not come through government assistance availed evacuation facility arranged by their employers.

The evacuation, which is part of the Union government's 'Operation Kaveri', was coordinated by AP Bhavan additional resident commissioner Himanshu Kaushik, APNRTS, district officials and others for bringing back people from the southern state stuck in the Sub-Saharan country.

Till now, nearly 3,000 people have been brought back to India from the African nation, according to official data.