New Delhi, 26 February (H.S.): A Sudanese military aircraft crash in Omdurman has resulted in at least 46 deaths, including women and children, according to officials. The Antonov aircraft crashed over a populated district in Omdurman, injuring at least 10 people. The military said it took off from the Wadi Sayidna air base north of Omdurman, the sister city of the capital, Khartoum. The crash also damaged several houses in the Karrari district of Omdurman. The military earlier claimed that armed forces personnel and civilians were killed in the crash but did not provide figures or explain what caused it. Some bodies were transferred to the Nau hospital in Omdurman.

Among the dead were senior military officers and the aircraft crew. The dead included women and children, among them five siblings. The aircraft was on its way to Port Sudan, the seat of the military-backed government, when it crashed over the Al-Thawra neighborhood in the Karrari district.

Sudan is also battling a cholera outbreak that has killed 1,472 people across a dozen provinces in recent months. The disease has sickened around 56,000 since it was detected in July last year. The outbreak was detected last year during the rainy season between July and October, with heavy rainfall and floods especially hitting the country's eastern areas where millions of war displaced people sheltered.

Sudan has been in a state of civil war since 2023 when tensions between the military and the 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.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Indrani Sarkar