CAIRO: A Sudanese military aircraft crashed while attempting to land in the east of the country and killed all the crew members on board in the latest plane crash in the war-torn African nation, military officials said.
The Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane experienced technical failure while attempting to land Tuesday in the Osman Digna Air Base in the coastal city of Port Sudan, two officials said Wednesday.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief the media, did not disclose how many personnel were on board.
Among the dead was military pilot Omran Mirghani, according to his uncle, prominent Sudanese journalist Osman Mirghani, who mourned his nephew’s death on social media.
The military didn’t comment on the crash.
Plane crashes are not uncommon in Sudan, which has a poor aviation safety record. In February, at least 46 people, including women and children, were killed when a military aircraft crashed in a densely populated area in Omdurman, the sister city of the capital, Khartoum.
The crash came as the miliary has suffered multiple setbacks in its war against a notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The miliary lost el-Fasher, its last stronghold in the sprawling region of Darfur in October, and earlier this week was forced to pull out from the country’s largest oil processing facility in the central region of Kordofan.
The RSF has been accused of committing atrocities in el-Fasher including summary executions, rape and other crimes, according to the United Nations and international rights groups.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said Wednesday that war crimes and “potentially” crimes against humanity were committed in the city, which the RSF seized in late October.
“We are talking about very serious atrocity crimes … war crimes for sure (and) potentially also crimes against humanity,” he told journalists in Geneva. “We have an extremely serious situation.”
Türk warned atrocities also could happen in the central region of Kordofan where the RSF has intensified its attacks in recent months.
“We cannot allow a repeat of this absolutely horrific situation in Kordofan,” he said, calling for a ceasefire in the country.
The war in Sudan began in April 2023 over a power struggle between the miliary and the RSF. The conflict has killed over 40,000 people, a figure rights groups consider a significant undercount.
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 also created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and pushed parts of the country into famine.
Sudanese military plane crashes and kills all crew members in Port Sudan
https://arab.news/wpf4a
Sudanese military plane crashes and kills all crew members in Port Sudan
- The Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane experienced technical failure while attempting to land
- Among the dead was military pilot Omran Mirghani, according to his uncle, prominent Sudanese journalist Osman Mirghani
Iran FM tells UN all military bases of ‘hostile forces’ legitimate targets
- UN chief condemns escalation, calls for immediate return to negotiating table
- Emergency session of Security Council set to convene on Saturday in New York
NEW YORK: Iran will use “all necessary defensive capabilities and means” to confront attacks by the US and Israel, and will treat “all bases, facilities, and assets of the hostile forces in the region” as legitimate military targets under its right to self-defense, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the president of the Security Council, Araghchi said US and Israeli airstrikes are “a clear violation” of the UN Charter and amount to “an open armed aggression” against Iran.
Tehran is exercising its “inherent and lawful right of self-defense” under the UN Charter, he added.
The letter, seen by Arab News, accused the US and Israel of launching coordinated, large-scale attacks on Iranian territory, targeting defensive facilities and civilian sites in several cities.
Araghchi said Iran will continue to act “decisively and without hesitation until the aggression ceases fully and unequivocally,” adding that the US and Israel “shall bear full and direct responsibility for all ensuing consequences, including any escalation arising from their unlawful actions.”
He called on the 15-member Security Council to convene an emergency meeting to address a “breach of peace which is a real and serious threat to international peace and security,” and urged UN member states to “unequivocally condemn this act of aggression.”
An emergency session of the council is set to convene in New York on Saturday, requested by France, Bahrain, Colombia, China and Russia.
The Russian mission at the UN said in a statement that during the meeting, Moscow will demand that the US and Israel “immediately cease their illegal and escalatory actions and embark on a path toward a political and diplomatic settlement.” It added that “Russia is willing to provide all necessary assistance in this process.”
Meanwhile, Guterres condemned the military escalation, saying “the use of force by the United States and Israel against Iran, and the subsequent retaliation by Iran across the region, undermine international peace and security.”
The UN Charter clearly prohibits “the threat of the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations,” Guterres said in a statement.
He called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and de-escalation, and an immediate return to the negotiating table, adding that “failing to do so risks a wider regional conflict with grave consequences for civilians and regional stability.”
UN human rights chief Volker Turk also deplored the escalation and warned that civilians are the ones who end up paying “the ultimate price.”
He said: “Bombs and missiles are not the way to resolve differences but only result in death, destruction and human misery.”
Turk called for restraint and implored the parties “to see reason, to de-escalate, and (return) to the ‘negotiating table’ where they had been actively seeking a solution only hours earlier.”
