Indians were among the 66 foreign citizens the Saudi Arabian authorities evacuated from Sudan by on Saturday, the country’s foreign ministry said. The exact number of Indians evacuated is not known.

A ship carrying 91 citizens of Saudi Arabia and 66 from other nations traveled to Jeddah from Port Sudan on Saturday, reported AFP. Those evacuated included diplomats and international officials. This is the first evacuation of civilians from Sudan where two military factions are fighting for control.

The evacuation took place three days after India’s Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar spoke with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to assess the situation in Sudan.

Several Indians are trapped in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum and other cities after a battle broke out between rival military factions to control the North African country. The Sudanese army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan is fighting the paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, reported Al Jazeera.

On April 16, the Indian embassy in Sudan had said that one Indian, identified as Albert Augestine, died after a stray bullet hit him. On April 20, the embassy advised citizens to not visit it as it is part of the fighting zone of the battle between two factions of the country’s military.

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia said that the evacuation was carried out by the kingdom’s naval forces with the support of other branches of the army.

Besides India, the foreign nationals evacuated from Sudan included citizens from Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Canada and Burkina Faso.

“The Kingdom worked to provide all the necessary needs of foreign nationals in preparation for their departure to their countries,” the foreign ministry of Saudi Arabia said in a statement.