In Darfur, Sudan, a Russian cargo plane with its crew was shot down

There are reports that the RSF shot down a cargo plane with Russians on board. The Russian embassy in Sudan is looking into these claims.

Reports say that a cargo plane with Russians on board was shot down in Darfur, which is a key battleground in Sudan’s ongoing civil war between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The Russian government in Sudan is looking into these claims.

Military sources say the plane, which was identified as a Russian-made Ilyushin Il-76, was on a mission to bring supplies and medicine to the city of El-Fasher, which is controlled by the army. 

The RSF, which has been fighting the Sudanese army very hard since April 2023, said they were the ones who shot down the plane. The group had earlier said that it had shot down a different Egyptian military plane made in Russia, saying that the Egyptian military was bombing people. However, that plane was found to be an Antonov.

The Egyptian government has said that it has nothing to do with helping Sudan’s troops during the 18-month-long conflict. The war between the army and the RSF has turned into a humanitarian crisis since it started. The UN says that more than 10 million people have been forced to leave their homes and an estimated 150,000 have died.

There are still a lot of questions about the plane crash. The Russian mission in Khartoum said it is working with the military government of Sudan to prove what happened and find out more about the crew. A report from the Sudan Tribune says that all five people on board—three Sudanese and two Russian—were killed when the plane crashed near the border with Chad on its way to the trapped city of El-Fasher.

Since the war started, the RSF has been attacking El-Fasher all the time. It is the last city in Darfur that is controlled by the army. The RSF says it has found the plane’s black box and has taken papers related to its mission. The RSF says that footage they shared shows soldiers holding identification papers found at the crash site. These include a Russian passport, an airport job card from Kyrgyzstan, and two South African driver’s licenses that all belong to the same person. But these stories are still being looked over.

There are different ideas about what caused the crash, such as the plane being shot down or a technology problem. According to some sources, the plane may have been mistakenly hit because video footage shows that it may have been connected to an airline that used to be part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).