19 Indian seafarers stranded in Yemen evacuated, Embassy says

The Indian Embassy in Yemen says it has evacuated 19 Indian seafarers who had been stranded in the Yemeni cities of Hodeidah and Sana’a for about two weeks. All of them are safe and on their way back to India, the mission said in a post on X on Sunday (8 November).

“The Embassy of India to Yemen has successfully evacuated 19 Indian seafarers who were stranded in Hodeidah and Sana’a (Yemen) for the past two weeks. All seafarers are safe, in good health, and on their way back to India. The Embassy sincerely thanks all concerned for their valuable cooperation and continued support in facilitating the safe evacuation of our Indian nationals,” the embassy said. The embassy’s statement did not say how the seafarers were evacuated, which ships they worked on, or why they were stranded.

The evacuation comes days after India said that 14 Indian nationals on a yacht involved in an incident off the Yemeni coast were safe. On 23 October the embassy said all 14 were safe and that it was in touch with the relevant parties to establish what had happened. A spokesperson for Yemen’s Houthi group, Yahya Saree, had claimed that Saudi forces targeted the yacht near Yuqar Island in the Red Sea, according to Arab media outlets quoted by The Hindu. That claim has not been independently verified. It is not clear whether the 14 are among the 19 evacuated.

The seafarers were stuck as tensions rose between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis. Saudi Arabia has intercepted Houthi missiles and drones, and Saudi-led coalition forces have carried out air strikes in Yemen, raising fears of wider conflict after relative calm under a 2022 truce. On Monday, the Saudi-led coalition said its air defences had intercepted two ballistic missiles launched by the Houthis towards Riyadh, News On AIR reported.

Business Standard noted that the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the narrow passage at the southern end of the Red Sea, has become a more important shipping route as some Gulf energy shipments are rerouted around disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. Last week, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India had lost 23 nationals in the ongoing West Asia conflict, including 15 seafarers.