Military Plane Crashes in Sudan's Darfur Region, Killing 18 People

Khartoum (dpa) - A military plane carrying Sudanese judges and injured people crashed on Thursday in the Darfur region of Sudan, leaving 18 people dead, according to an army spokesman.

It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.

The dead included seven military crew members, three judges and eight citizens, among them four children, said Brigadier General Amer Muhammad Al-Hassan.

The Sudanese Red Crescent had said earlier that all those on board were killed.

The aircraft was transporting people injured in a tribal conflict in Darfur to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, for treatment.

The clashes are between members of the Masalit and Arab communities. Forty-eight people had been killed in the ethnic violence by Thursday afternoon, according to the Red Crescent.

The Antonov plane took off from a military airport in the city of El Geneina - located in the west of Sudan, near the border with Chad - but fell from the sky five minutes later, Al-Hassan said.

An investigation is under way to determine the cause of the accident, according to the spokesman.

———

©2020 Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany)

Visit Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany) at www.dpa.de/English.82.0.html

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.