At least 46 people have now been confirmed dead following the crash of a Sudanese military plane in the city of Omdurman, just outside Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, officials said Wednesday.
According to Al Jazeera report, the Antonov aircraft went down late Tuesday night shortly after taking off from Wadi Seidna military airport in northern Omdurman. The plane crashed into a civilian home in the Karrari neighborhood, initially killing 19 people, according to the health ministry. However, authorities updated the death toll Wednesday, adding that 10 more people sustained injuries in the incident.
Among those killed was Major-General Bahr Ahmed, a senior military official in Khartoum. The Sudanese army, currently embroiled in ongoing conflict with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023, said both military personnel and civilians died in the crash. While firefighting teams quickly controlled the blaze, several houses were damaged, and power outages affected nearby areas.
Although military sources attributed the crash to technical issues, the army’s official statement did not specify a cause. The incident occurred just a day after RSF forces claimed responsibility for shooting down another military aircraft in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.
The crash comes amid intensifying fighting in Sudan, where tensions between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamadan Daglo have led to widespread conflict, killing tens of thousands and displacing over 12 million people, according to the United Nations.
