CAIRO: A Sudanese military aircraft crashed in the city of Omdurman, killing at least 19 people, military and health officials said Wednesday.
The Antonov aircraft crashed Tuesday while taking off from the Wadi Sayidna air base north of Omdurman, the military said in a statement. Omdurman is the sister city of the capital, Khartoum.
The military said that armed forces personnel and civilians were killed in the crash, but didn’t disclose how many. It didn’t say what caused the crash.
The health ministry, however, said at least 19 people were killed, whose bodies were transferred to the Nau hospital in Omdurman. The hospital also received five injured civilians, including two young siblings.
The ministry said that the aircraft crashed over a civilian house in the Karrari district in Omdurman, suggesting that there were people dead on the ground.
Sudan has been in a state of civil war since 2023 when tensions between the military and a notorious paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, exploded into open warfare.
The fighting has wrecked urban areas and has been marked by atrocities, including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings, that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in the western region of Darfur, according to the United Nations and international rights groups.
The war has intensified in recent months, with the military making steady advances against the RSF in Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.
The RSF, which controls most of the western region of Darfur, said that it downed a military aircraft on Monday in Nyala, the provincial capital of South Darfur province.
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Death toll in Sudan military plane crash rises to 46
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Death toll in Sudan military plane crash rises to 46
- The death toll from a Sudanese military plane crash in the city of Omdurman increased to at least 46 people, officials said Wednesday.
- The Antonov aircraft crashed Tuesday while taking off from the Wadi Sayidna air base north of Omdurman
Sudan returns to east African bloc after two years
- Decision comes two years after Sudan froze its IGAD membership over a decision to invite rival paramilitary chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo to a summit
KHARTOUM: Sudan on Monday announced it was returning to east African bloc IGAD, two years after freezing its membership over a decision to invite rival paramilitary chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo to a summit.
“The government of the Republic of Sudan will resume its full activity in the membership” in the Djibouti-based Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Sudan had suspended its membership in January 2024 after the bloc invited the head of rival paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to a summit in Uganda to discuss the country’s brutal conflict.
The RSF has been at war with Sudan’s army since April 2023 in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands, displaced 11 million and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
The foreign ministry cited a statement by IGAD which reaffirmed “its full recognition of Sudan’s sovereignty and the unity of its lands and people” and pledged “non-interference in member states’ internal affairs.”
The decision to rejoin IGAD follows a meeting in January between the bloc’s executive secretary, Workneh Gebeyehu, and Sudan’s Prime Minister Kamil Idris.
Following the meeting, the bloc issued a statement saying it “condemns all forms of violations committed by the Rapid Support Forces and reaffirms its full support for the unity and sovereignty of the Republic of the Sudan, as well as its existing national institutions.”
The nearly three-year conflict has effectively split Sudan between army-controlled areas in the north, east and center, and those controlled by the paramilitaries in the west and parts of the south.
The RSF has also formed a rival parallel administration in Nyala, the South Darfur state capital, but it has received no international recognition.
IGAD on Monday welcomed Sudan’s decision to return, describing it as “a reaffirmation of regional solidarity and collective commitment to peace, stability, and cooperation across the region.”
“The government of the Republic of Sudan will resume its full activity in the membership” in the Djibouti-based Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Sudan had suspended its membership in January 2024 after the bloc invited the head of rival paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to a summit in Uganda to discuss the country’s brutal conflict.
The RSF has been at war with Sudan’s army since April 2023 in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands, displaced 11 million and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
The foreign ministry cited a statement by IGAD which reaffirmed “its full recognition of Sudan’s sovereignty and the unity of its lands and people” and pledged “non-interference in member states’ internal affairs.”
The decision to rejoin IGAD follows a meeting in January between the bloc’s executive secretary, Workneh Gebeyehu, and Sudan’s Prime Minister Kamil Idris.
Following the meeting, the bloc issued a statement saying it “condemns all forms of violations committed by the Rapid Support Forces and reaffirms its full support for the unity and sovereignty of the Republic of the Sudan, as well as its existing national institutions.”
The nearly three-year conflict has effectively split Sudan between army-controlled areas in the north, east and center, and those controlled by the paramilitaries in the west and parts of the south.
The RSF has also formed a rival parallel administration in Nyala, the South Darfur state capital, but it has received no international recognition.
IGAD on Monday welcomed Sudan’s decision to return, describing it as “a reaffirmation of regional solidarity and collective commitment to peace, stability, and cooperation across the region.”
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