At least 46 people have died after a Sudanese military plane crashed in the city of Omdurman, officials said on Wednesday. The Antonov aircraft crashed on 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 Khartoum Media Office said the crash also injured 10 others. The initial death toll of 19 was provided by the health ministry. The crash also damaged a number of houses in the Karrari district of Omdurman, the media office added. The military earlier said that armed forces personnel and civilians were killed in the crash, but didn't provide figures. It didn't say what caused the crash.
The health ministry said that some bodies were transferred to the Nau hospital in Omdurman. 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.
