Sudanese military aircraft crash near Khartoum kills at least 46

Civilian and military personnel killed as Russian-made Antonov crashes during take-off

F man walks by a house hit in recent fighting in Khartoum, Sudan, an area torn by fighting between the military and the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. AP

At least 46 people were killed when a Sudanese military transport plane crashed into a residential district on the outskirts of Khartoum, the local government said on Wednesday.

It said the Russian-made Antonov aircraft went down on Tuesday night near Wadi Sayedna airbase, one of the army's largest military hubs in the capital's greater region. A technical malfunction has been cited as the most likely cause of the crash. The army said the plane crashed during take-off, killing and injuring military personnel and civilians.

“After a final tally, the number of martyrs reached 46, with 10 injured,” the Khartoum regional government's media office said in a statement. It said the crash caused a fire, which was put out.

Witnesses described hearing a loud explosion and seeing several homes damaged near the crash, which also caused power cuts.

A day earlier, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which have been at war with the armed forces since April 2023, claimed responsibility for shooting down a Russian-made Ilyushin aircraft over Nyala, the capital of South Darfur. The army has not commented.

The war in Sudan is essentially a power struggle between army chief and de facto president Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and his one-time ally RSF commander Gen Mohamed Dagalo.

The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced at least 12 million people. It has also created a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with 26 million people facing acute hunger and pockets of famine surfacing across the vast and resource-rich Afro-Arab nation.

With additional reporting by AFP