A military transport aircraft has crashed while attempting to land at an airbase in eastern Sudan, killing all crew members on board, as the country faces a worsening humanitarian and military crisis.
The Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft went down on Tuesday while approaching the Osman Digna airbase in Port Sudan, near the city’s main airport, according to two military sources who spoke to AFP. The crash reportedly occurred due to a technical malfunction during the landing attempt. The Sudanese Armed Forces, aligned with the government, have not released the number of crew members who died in the incident.
This marks the latest tragedy in a country already reeling from months of violent conflict. The last major incident at the Port Sudan airbase occurred in May, when drones struck multiple sites, including the airfield.
The crash comes as the Sudanese Armed Forces face mounting setbacks across the central regions. On Monday, the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary group, seized control of the Heglig oilfield, Sudan’s largest oil facility, in West Kordofan province after SAF withdrew. The Heglig facility processes between 80,000 and 100,000 barrels of crude oil daily for Sudan and South Sudan and serves as a key node in the pipeline to Port Sudan. Military sources also reported that SAF was withdrawing from Babnusa, a strategic gateway in West Kordofan, which RSF claimed to have taken control of in early December.
Ahmed Ibrahim, a former adviser to the Sudanese government, told Al Jazeera that the attack on Heglig was part of a wider RSF strategy to drag South Sudan, where a fragile truce is barely holding, into the ongoing war.
The conflict’s epicenter has shifted to the Kordofan region following the fall of el-Fasher last month. The United Nations has described the situation there as a “crime scene.” RSF gains across central Sudan now threaten to divide the country, potentially isolating army-held territories while consolidating paramilitary control over a continuous stretch of land from Chad to the heart of Sudan.
The crash and RSF advances come amid international scrutiny. On the same day, the United States imposed sanctions on four Colombian nationals and four companies accused of recruiting military veterans to fight for the RSF. However, the sanctions did not target Global Security Services Group, a UAE-based company identified by the investigative organization The Sentry as facilitating the deployment of Colombian mercenaries to Sudan. The UAE has consistently denied supporting the RSF.
Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court sentenced Ali Kushayb, a former leader of the Janjaweed militia, to 20 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur between 2003 and 2004. This marked the first ICC prosecution for crimes in Darfur, a region now witnessing renewed mass atrocities as the RSF, which traces its origins to the Janjaweed, advances in western and central Sudan.
The ongoing conflict, which began in April 2023, has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 12 million people. The World Food Programme warns that 20 million people face acute food shortages, with six million on the brink of starvation.
Javid Abdelmoneim, international president of Doctors Without Borders, warned that the international community must not accept “a new normal” of mass atrocities in Sudan. He emphasized that the ongoing conflict in Kordofan is not only a continuation of violence but also a catastrophic escalation that continues to devastate civilian lives.
The military plane crash and the RSF’s territorial gains underline the growing instability in Sudan, raising concerns about the potential for further humanitarian disasters if the conflict continues unchecked.
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