The death toll from a military plane crash in Omdurman, near Sudan’s capital, has risen to 46. The Antonov aircraft went down while taking off from Wadi Seidna military airport on Tuesday. The crash also left 10 people injured. Firefighters managed to control the blaze at the crash site. While the cause of the crash remains unconfirmed, military sources told Reuters that technical failure was a likely factor.
According to reports, the plane crashed into a civilian home in the Karrari district of Omdurman, damaging several houses and causing power outages in nearby neighborhoods. Among those killed was Major-General Bahr Ahmed, a senior commander in Khartoum. The Sudanese military confirmed that both soldiers and civilians were among the casualties.
The incident came just a day after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) claimed to have downed a Russian-made Ilyushin plane in Nyala, South Darfur.
Sudan has been in conflict since April 2023 when a power struggle erupted between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. The United Nations estimates that more than 12 million people have been displaced. Recent army advances against RSF forces in central Sudan and Khartoum have further intensified the fighting.