Military transport plane crashes in war-torn Sudan, killing crew: Report

All crew members killed in crash at Port Sudan airbase as paramilitary forces seize strategic oil facility in West Kordofan.Published On 10 Dec 2025A military transport aircraft has gone down while attempting to land at an airbase in eastern Sudan, killing all the crew members in the war-ravaged nation.An Ilyushin Il-76 crashed on Tuesday as it approached the Osman Digna airbase in Port Sudan, near the city’s main airport, two military sources told the AFP news agency, citing a technical malfunction during the landing attempt.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3What’s changed in Sudan after the Rapid Support Forces’ control of Heglig?list 2 of 3Sudan militia leader sentenced to 20 years for war crimes by ICClist 3 of 3US sanctions Colombian citizens for recruiting fighters for Sudan’s warend of listAll crew members on board were killed, though the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has not disclosed how many people were on the plane.The last major incident at the airbase occurred in May, when drones struck multiple sites across Port Sudan, including the airfield.The incident comes as SAF faces mounting losses across the country’s central regions.On Monday, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of the Heglig oilfield, Sudan’s largest oil facility, in West Kordofan province after SAF abandoned their positions, according to the Sudan Tribune.Military sources told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the army was also withdrawing from Babnusa in West Kordofan, a strategic gateway that the RSF said it had taken control of in early December.The loss of Heglig delivers a significant blow to the military-aligned government’s revenue streams. The facility processes between 80,000 and 100,000 barrels of crude oil daily for Sudan and South Sudan, and the pipeline to Port Sudan runs through it.Ahmed Ibrahim, a former adviser to the Sudanese government, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the attack on Heglig was part of an RSF effort to drag South Sudan, where a fragile truce between the country’s dominant forces has only barely held, into the war on its side.The conflict’s epicentre has shifted to the Kordofan region following el-Fasher’s fall last month, which the United Nations has described as a “crime scene”. RSF gains across the central region now threaten to bisect the country, potentially isolating army-held territory and consolidating paramilitary control over a continuous stretch from Chad to the country’s heartland.