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Sushma SwarajReuters

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj offered assistance to a merchant navy officer, who was stuck in Yemen with his wife, after he reached out to her on Twitter. However, the assistance came only after she scolded the officer for ignoring the External Affairs Ministry's advisory on travelling to Yemen.

Swaraj had recently gone all out to evacuate Indians stranded in war-torn Yemen. All Indians in the country returned to India safely due to Swaraj's efforts and also with the assistance of Minister of State for External Affairs General VK Singh (retired).

After the evacuation, the MEA had issued an advisory to all Indians to not travel to Yemen. However, an Indian ship ignored the advisory and, therefore, got stuck in the city of Aden. That is when the naval officer issued an SOS to Swaraj requesting her for urgent help.

Swaraj immediately sprung into action and asked him details like how many Indians were on the ship and whether any ship belonging to the Indian Navy was present close to them.

The officer told her that the ship was Indian and that there were nine crew members on the ship that is "awaiting cargo discharge" and would "sail out after cargo operation."

He also requested Swaraj to relax the travel advisory for some time so that they could be rescued. Later, Swaraj scolded the officer for violating the MEA advisory by travelling to Yemen. The officer explained that his company had violated the advisory due to which they were suffering and requested for her help.

Swaraj also instructed the Indian Navy to rescue all Indian nationals from Aden as soon as possible and also requested Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to intervene in the matter. But Swaraj also warned against making any exception and permitting citizens to travel to Yemen.

The officer thanked Swaraj and Parrikar for their help. However, Swaraj gave the entire credit to the Indian Navy.

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