46 people were killed when Sudan’s military transport plane crashed in a residential area in the outskirts of Khartoum, the regional government said in a statement.
Antoninov aircraft fell Tuesday night near Wady Sedna Air Force Base, one of the army’s largest military hubs, located in Omdurman in the northwest of the capital.
The Army, which has war with the Paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) since April 2023, said the plane crashed while taking off, killing and injuring military personnel and civilians.
“After the final statistics, the number of martyrs reached 46 and 10 were injured,” the Khartoum Regional Government Media Office said in a statement.
The Ministry of Health, which is consistent with the Army, has previously reported at least 19 deaths.
Witnesses described hearing loud explosions and seeing several homes in the area damaged on Wednesday. The crash also caused power outages in nearby communities.
The ministry said the emergency team drove injured civilians, including children, to a nearby hospital.
A military source said the technical failure was the cause of the crash and spoke with AFP on anonymous condition because they did not have the right to comment to the media.
The recent escalation is a significant progress made by the Army in central Sudan and capital Khartoum in multiple offensives against the RSF.
Late Saturday, the RSF signed a charter with allied political and armed groups in Nairobi, Kenya, paving the way for the establishment of parallel governments in rebel-controlled areas.
Army Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy and RSF commander Mohamed Hamadan Daglo have been trapped in a deadly power struggle since April 2023.
The war has claimed tens of thousands of lives, and a rift broke out between Bernhan and Daglow, breaking out in the future structure of the government.
According to the United Nations, the conflict has sparked one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory, occupying more than 12 million, putting the country in hunger and severe critical infrastructure.
