Russian nationals said to be on plane downed in Africa
Russian citizens may have been on board an Il-76 cargo plane that was reportedly shot down over the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan, one of the factions in the Sudanese civil war has said.
A conflict between the Sudanese Sovereign Council and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia has raged since 2023. The RSF called off peace talks with Khartoum earlier this month, vowing to pursue victory on the battlefield.
The cargo plane shot down in western Sudan may have had Russian nationals on board, Moscow’s embassy in Khartoum said on Monday, citing RSF claims posted on social media.
The embassy said it was “taking all necessary steps to clarify the circumstances of this incident,” in collaboration with Sudanese authorities, adding that the situation is complicated by the fact that the crash site is in Darfur.
Photos and videos posted on X from the crash site showed the wreckage of what appeared to be an Il-76 transport plane, and a Russian passport. Another post showed a corporate ID card of Airline Transport Incorporation FZE, based in the UAE, issued to a person with a Russian-sounding name. The card also says ‘Manas International Airport’, which is in Kyrgyzstan.
According to the outlet Sudan War Monitor, another document retrieved at the crash site was a safety manual belonging to New Way Cargo Airlines, a Kyrgyz carrier.
Ali ‘Savannah’ Rizkallah, a RSF commander in North Darfur, appeared in one video circulating on social media and said his troops used “guided missiles” to bring down the “Egyptian Antonov,” even though the plane in question appears to be an Ilyushin. RSF leader Mohammed Hamdan Daglo had previously accused Egypt of bombing his forces on behalf of Khartoum.
The Sovereign Council has accused the UAE of smuggling weapons to the RSF, which the Emirates have denied. A US-funded NGO has claimed that UAE-based Il-76 transports have brought weapons to Amjarass in neighboring Chad, from where they were delivered to the RSF. According to the Emiratis, however, the flights to Amjarass were bringing supplies to a field hospital, set up to treat the many Sudanese refugees.
The RSF rebelled against the Sovereign Council, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, in April 2023. According to a recent report from a UN fact-finding mission, the conflict has left tens of thousands dead or injured, internally displaced nearly eight million people in the country of roughly 47 million, and forced two million more into neighboring countries as refugees. The UN has described the humanitarian situation in Sudan as one of the most severe in the world.
