Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces said Monday they had shot down a cargo plane in the country’s far western region of Darfur, a claim Russian diplomats said they were trying to investigate in the area. of war.
Cellphone footage shows what appears to be a debris field with fighters from the paramilitary force, known as the RSF, showing what appear to be identity documents recovered in the crash.
However, documents also shown in the crash site footage suggest the plane was affiliated with an airline previously linked to a US effort. United Arab Emirates to arm the RSF during the war, which the UAE has vigorously denied despite the evidence.
A message from the Russian Embassy in Khartoum confirmed that its diplomats were investigating the incident in the Sudanese region of Meshin the north of Darfurnear the border with the Chad. The embassy message indicates that Russians may have been on board the plane at the time of the incident.
Russian passport
At war with the Sudanese army since April 2023, the paramilitary force claimed in a press release to have killed a “foreign warplane” who helped the Sudanese army. Paramilitary forces claimed in a statement to have killed a “foreign warplane” which was helping the Sudanese army, without providing proof that the aircraft had dropped “barrel bombs” on civilians.
“All foreign mercenaries who were on board the plane were eliminated during the operation”specifies the press release.
Cellphone footage shows fighters among burning debris, saying they shot down the plane using a missile sol-air. The identity documents presented included a Russian passport and an ID linked to a UAE-based company, whose phone number has been disconnected.
A crumpled security card, also believed to be from the plane, identified the aircraft as a Ilyushin Il-76 operated by the New Way Cargo company from Kyrgyzstan. Civil aviation officials from Kyrgyzstan did not respond to a request for comment late Monday.
Arms transfers
The group Conflict Observatoryfunded by the US State Department and monitoring the war in Sudan, linked New Way Cargo’s Ilyushin Il-76s to RSF weaponry in a report released this month.
He said the airline had facilitated arms transfers from the United Arab Emirates by flights to Maréchal Idriss Deby International Airport in Amdjarass, Chad, flights which the United Arab Emirates claimed were intended to support a local hospital. Amdjarass is just across the border from Malha, where the shooting is believed to have taken place.
“The United Arab Emirates used the airport as a crossing point to facilitate the delivery of weapons to the Republican security forces”says the report, which specifies that the Emirates offered a loan of $1.5 billion for the rapid expansion of the airport. “The lack of evidence of a significant local humanitarian crisis and Sudanese refugees in the area casts significant doubt on the UAE’s claims that the airport construction is only for a hospital.”
UN experts said accusations that the UAE armed the RSF were “credible”. Emirati officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the downed plane.
Military coup
Sudan’s war has killed more than 24,000 people so far, group says Armed Conflict Location and Event Datawhich has been monitoring the violence since the start of the conflict. The Sudanese army has intensified its offensive near Khartoum, while forces allied to the Sudanese army clash with Sudanese security forces in Darfur.
Sudan has been unstable since a popular uprising forced the removal of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019. The short-lived transition to democracy was halted when two generals, army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhaneand the general Mohammed Hamdan Dagaloof the RSF, joined forces to carry out a military coup in October 2021. They began to face each other in 2023.
Mr. el-Bechir is accused by the International Criminal Court of having led a genocidal campaign in the early 2000s in Darfur with the Janjaweed, the precursor of the RSF. Human rights groups and the United Nations say the RSF and allied Arab militias are once again targeting African ethnic groups in the war.
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