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A tragic plane crash near Khartoum’s outskirts in Sudan has claimed 46 lives, the regional government announced Wednesday.
The Sudanese military transport plane, an Antonov aircraft, crashed Tuesday night into a residential area close to the Wadi Seidna air base in Omdurman, northwest of the capital.
The aircraft went down during takeoff, resulting in fatalities and injuries among both military personnel and civilians, amid the ongoing conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023.
Initially, the army-aligned health ministry reported at least 19 dead, but later the Khartoum regional government’s media office confirmed a final count of 46 casualties and 10 injured.
Eyewitnesses recounted hearing a loud explosion and witnessing extensive damage to nearby homes. The crash also triggered power outages in surrounding neighborhoods. Emergency teams swiftly transported injured civilians, including children, to a nearby hospital. A military source, speaking anonymously, attributed the crash to a technical malfunction.
This incident occurred just a day after the RSF claimed responsibility for downing a Russian-made Ilyushin aircraft over Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, with the paramilitary group asserting the plane was destroyed along with its crew.
The situation in Sudan has escalated recently, with the army making significant advances in central Sudan and Khartoum against the RSF. On Saturday, the RSF signed a charter with allied political and armed groups in Nairobi, Kenya, indicating the formation of a parallel government in rebel-held areas.
The conflict, which erupted from a rift between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamadan Daglo over government structure, has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises according to the United Nations. The fighting has ravaged Khartoum and other major cities, displaced over 12 million people, and plunged the nation into hunger while crippling critical infrastructure.
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