A Sudanese military aircraft carrying senior military personnel has crashed while attempting to take off from an air base located in the northeast of the country. At least 46 passengers and crew are reported to have died in the ancient. Latest reports issued by the country’s Ministry of Information indicate that 17 military personnel along with 29 civilians are among the victims, with Major-General Bahr Ahmed, a senior commander in the Sudanese Army, among the dead.

The airplane involved, a Russian-built Antonov An-26 multi-purpose aircraft, crashed as it took off from Wadi Sayidna Air Base in Northeast Sudan on a flight to an air base near Port Sudan on the Red Sea. The Antonov aircraft crashed into the residential district of Karrari in the city of Omdurman, described as a sister city to the capital city, Khartoum. Several houses were reportedly destroyed by a post-impact fire.

The Sudanese military issued a statement following the accident reporting that firefighting teams had managed to contain the blaze at the crash site. The statement did not provide details on what had caused the crash, but military sources told reporters that it was most likely due to technical reasons. As reported by Al Jazeera, residents in northern Omdurman reported a loud explosion from the crash, which damaged several homes and caused power outages in surrounding neighborhoods.  

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