NOS News••Amended
A passenger plane was shot at at the airport of the Sudanese capital Khartoum this morning. The plane of Saudia, the national airline of Saudi Arabia, was about to leave for Riyadh. There were passengers and crew on board. It is unclear how many people were involved.
Saudia said in a statement that all passengers and crew members are safe. They have been transferred to the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum. It is not clear whether anyone was injured.
There was fighting at the airport today between the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese army. Both sides claim to control the international airport and other key areas in the capital.
KLM avoids Sudanese airspace
According to Saudia, the plane was damaged in the shelling at the airport. Images show how at least two planes are on fire at the airport. In addition to the Saudia aircraft, it would be an aircraft from a Ukrainian airline. You can also see how a fighter plane skims over the airport.
Saudia and EgyptAir, which also regularly fly to Khartoum, are suspending their flights. Several passenger flights bound for the Sudanese capital have flown back to the airport of departure.
A spokesman for KLM tells NOS that the airline avoids Sudanese airspace. KLM does not fly to Khartoum, but normally flies over Sudan to countries such as Kenya and Tanzania.
Conflict between generals
Sudan was led for nearly three decades by dictator Omar al-Bashir, who came to power in a 1989 coup. That came to an end in 2019, when the army took over power after major civilian protests. The government that was then appointed was overthrown in 2021 after another military coup. Since then, the country has been ruled by a group of generals.
One of them is Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, de facto president of the country. He has power over the military. His vice president and former confidant Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, controls the RSF. The combat group fought alongside the army in the coup in 2021 and previously crushed the rebel movement in the province of Darfur with great violence and large-scale ethnic cleansing. The group was known as the Janjaweed at the time.
The two men are now arguing over the RSF’s integration into the military and over business interests. Recent talks and mediation by diplomats have been unsuccessful. The Sudanese population was already fearful of an outbreak of violence.
