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
