Sudan military plane crashes near capital, kills 15
Sun Oct 7, 2012 4:43pm GMT
* Nine people injured in the crash
* Flight was on the way to Darfur
* U.S. sanctions have degraded Sudan air fleets (Updates death toll to 15)
KHARTOUM, Oct 7 (Reuters) - A Sudanese military plane carrying personnel and
equipment to the strife-torn Darfur region crashed near the capital Khartoum
on Sunday killing 15 people on board, the army said.
The plane's engine stopped working and the pilot was trying to make an
emergency landing when it went down about 40km (25 miles) southwest of the
Khartoum suburb of Omdurman, state news agency SUNA reported.
The Antonov 12 transport plane was travelling to El Fasher in northern
Darfur, military spokesman Al-Sawarmi Khalid said.
Thirteen people initially died and nine were injured in the crash, all of
them military personnel, he added. Two of the injured later died of their
wounds, SUNA reported.
There have been several crashes in Sudan in recent years, where years of
U.S. sanctions have made it difficult for airlines to get spare parts for
their fleets. Antonov aircraft are Russian built however and not subject to
sanctions.
The plane belonged to Azza Air, the state-linked Sudanese Media Centre
reported. An Azza cargo plane leased by Sudan Airways crashed in the United
Arab Emirates in 2009.
In August, 32 people including a government minister died when a plane
taking them to an Islamic festival crashed in a southern border state. State
media blamed that accident on bad weather.
A military helicopter crashed in the country's North Kordofan state in
December because of a technical failure, killing six crew members, the
military said at the time.
The armed forces has formed a committee to investigate "the reasons for the
recurrence of Antonov aircraft accidents", SUNA said.
Government forces have been battling an insurgency in Darfur since rebels
took up arms in 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglecting the remote region.
(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz and Alexander Dziadosz; Writing by Alexander
Dziadosz; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Jon Hemming)
Sudan to reopen border with South Sudan -state media
Sun Oct 7, 2012 6:03pm GMT
KHARTOUM Oct 7 (Reuters) - Sudan will reopen its border crossings with South
Sudan after the former civil war foes reached a security deal last month,
Sudanese state media said on Sunday.
Cross-border trade between the two countries largely stopped ahead of South
Sudan's secession from Sudan last year, severing historic supply routes for
food, fuel and consumer goods.
The halt stoked double-digit inflation in the South as traders in border
states and elsewhere began to rely on goods trucked in from Kenya and Uganda
at a premium.
Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir announced "the opening of the border
and the land and river passages" with South Sudan, state radio said in a
text message sent to mobile phones.
The two countries broke apart in July last year under a 2005 peace deal that
ended decades of civil war, but remained embroiled in disputes over oil,
contested areas along the border and other issues.
Under international pressure, the countries agreed last month to secure
their shared border. The deal paved the way for the landlocked South to
resume oil exports, which it shut down in January in a row with Khartoum
over fees. (Reporting by Alexander Dziadosz and Khalid Abdelaziz; Editing by
Will Waterman)
C Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved
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Received on Sun Oct 07 2012 - 16:09:57 EDT
