Russia launches investigation into alleged shoot-down of cargo plane in Sudan
- In Reports
- 03:10 PM, Oct 22, 2024
- Myind Staff
Sudan's paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced on Monday that they shot down a cargo plane in the remote region of Darfur. Russian diplomats stated that they were looking into this incident in the conflict area.
Mobile phone videos showed what looked like a field of debris, with fighters from the paramilitary group RSF displaying what seemed to be identity documents found in the wreckage. Although the UAE has vehemently disputed the evidence, documents also seen in the crash site footage indicate the aircraft was connected to an airline that was previously connected to an attempt by the UAE to arm the RSF in the fight.
Russia's embassy in Khartoum acknowledged in a message that its diplomats were looking into the event in the Malha region of Sudan in northern Darfur, close to the Chad border. Russians might have been on board at the time, according to the embassy's statement. Since April 2023, the RSF has been engaged in combat with the Sudanese army. A "foreign warplane" that was supporting the Sudanese military was shot down, according to a statement from the paramilitary group. It claimed that the planes had been dumping "barrel bombs" on civilians, but it offered no proof.
In mobile phone footage, fighters could be seen amidst the flaming debris, claiming to have shot down the aircraft using a surface-to-air missile. The identity documents displayed were a passport from Russia and an ID tied to a corporation in the United Arab Emirates, the phone number for which was disconnected. A wrinkled safety card, believed to be from the aircraft, labelled the plane as an Ilyushin Il-76 operated by New Way Cargo from Kyrgyzstan. Civil aviation officials in Kyrgyzstan did not reply to a request for comment late on Monday.
The Conflict Observatory, a group funded by the US State Department and tracking the war in Sudan, reported this month that New Way Cargo’s Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft are connected to supplying weapons to the RSF (Rapid Support Forces). The airline helped the UAE transfer arms by flying to Aeroport International Marechal Idriss Deby in Amdjarass, Chad. The UAE stated that these flights were meant to support a local hospital. Amdjarass is located just across the border from Malha, where the shoot-down is said to have occurred.
“The UAE has used the airport as a waypoint to facilitate weapons to the RSF,” the report said, noting that the Emirates offered a US$1.5 billion loan to rapidly expand the airport. “Absent evidence of a significant local humanitarian crisis and a lack of significant Sudanese refugees in the area casts significant doubt on the UAE’s claims that the airport construction is only for a hospital.”
United Nations experts have found the claims that the UAE supplied weapons to the RSF to be “credible.” Emirati officials have not yet responded to inquiries about the reported shooting down of a plane. The ongoing war in Sudan has resulted in the deaths of more than 24,000 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data group, which has been tracking the violence since the conflict began. The Sudanese army is increasing its attacks near Khartoum, while its allied forces are fighting against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Darfur.
Sudan has faced instability since a popular uprising led to the ousting of long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019. The brief period of democratic transition ended when two generals—General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the army chief, and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo of the RSF—teamed up to carry out a military coup in October 2021. This led to fighting between them that started in 2023.
Al-Bashir is facing charges at the International Criminal Court for leading a campaign of genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s with the Janjaweed, a group that later became the RSF (Rapid Support Forces). Human rights organisations and the United Nations report that the RSF and allied Arab militias are once again attacking ethnic African communities in the ongoing conflict.
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