Cairo: The death toll from a Sudanese military aircraft crash in the city of Omdurman increased to at least 46 people, including women and children, officials said Wednesday, one of the deadliest plane crashes in the northeastern African nation in the past two decades. The Antonov aircraft crashed on Tuesday over a populated district in Omdurman, also injuring at least 10 people, according to the government-run Khartoum Media Office. An initial death toll of 19 was provided by the health ministry.
The military said in a statement that the plane crashed while taking off from the Wadi Sayidna air base north of Omdurman, the sister city of the capital, Khartoum. The crash also damaged a number of houses in the Karrari district of Omdurman, the media office said.
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 some bodies were transferred to the Nau hospital in Omdurman.
Among the dead were senior military officers, including Maj. Gen. Bahr Ahmed Bahr and Lt. Col. Awad Ayoub, and the aircraft crew, according to a military official. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, said the dead include women and children, among them five siblings.
Local media reported that the aircraft was on the way to the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, the seat of the military-backed government, when it crashed over the Al-Thawra neighborhood in the Karrari district. Residents reported loud explosions from the crash, which sent thick clouds of smoke and dust over Omdurman.
Aircraft crashes are common in Sudan, which has a poor aviation safety record. In 2020, at least 16 people were killed when a military plane, a Russian Antonov An-12, crashed in the western region of Darfur. In 2003, a civilian Sudan Airways plane crashed into a hillside while trying to make an emergency landing, killing 116 people, including eight foreigners. Only a boy survived the crash.
Over 1,400 died from cholera in recent months
Sudan is also battling a cholera outbreak that has killed 1,472 people across a dozen provinces in recent months, the Health Ministry said. The disease has sickened around 56,000 since it was detected in July last year. The dead included over 70 people who died in two cities in the White Nile province earlier this month, the ministry said. More than 2,000 others were diagnosed with the disease in the cities of Kosti and Rabak, it said.
The outbreak was detected last year during the rainy season between July and October. Heavy rainfall and floods especially hit the country's eastern areas where millions of war displaced people sheltered. The outbreak added further burdens on the country, which has suffered from nearly two years of devastating war.
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 Darfur, said that it downed a military aircraft on Monday in Nyala, the provincial capital of South Darfur province.
