Russian diplomats are investigating claims that Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shot down a cargo jet in the country’s far western reaches of Darfur on Monday evening.
Russia’s Embassy in Khartoum confirmed in a message that its diplomats were investigating the incident in Sudan’s northern Malha region in Darfur, near the border with Chad. The embassy’s message said Russians may have been on board at the time.
In footage widely circulated online, fighters from the celebrating RSF soldiers purportedly show a field of still-smouldering debris before seeming to wave identity documents in front of the camera.
However, the documents shown in the footage from the crash site suggest the aircraft was affiliated with an airline previously linked to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) efforts to arm the RSF in the war. The UAE has repeatedly denied reports that it is involved in the conflict despite evidence to the contrary.
A bloody, protracted conflict
The RSF has been at war with the Sudanese army (SAF) since April 2023. Sudan has been unstable since a popular uprising forced the removal of long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
Al Bashir, who is now in a SAF-controlled prison, faces charges at the International Criminal Court over carrying out a genocidal campaign in the early 2000s in Darfur with the Janjaweed, the precursor to the RSF.
The short-lived transition to democracy after Al Bashir’s demise was derailed when two generals, the army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo of the RSF, joined forces to lead a military coup in October 2021, before falling out and declaring war on each other 18 months later.
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While the SAF has gained support from Iran, Egypt, and Ukraine, the RSF has gained the support of the UAE and Russia. The involvement of these proxies has led to Sudan becoming another battleground between Ukrainian and Russian forces.
Despite the UAE’s repeated denials, United Nations experts have said accusations that the UAE armed the RSF were “credible”. Emirati officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment over the reported plane shoot-down.
Sudan’s war has killed over 24,000 people so far, according to the group Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, which has been monitoring the violence since the conflict’s start. The Sudanese army has been pursuing an intensified offensive near Khartoum, while forces allied with it have been battling the RSF in Darfur.
‘Foreign warplane’ accusations
The paramilitary force claimed in a statement that it had shot down a “foreign warplane” that had been aiding the Sudanese military. It also alleged without providing evidence that the aircraft had been dropping “barrel bombs” on civilians.
“All foreign mercenaries aboard the aircraft were eliminated in the operation,” the statement said. Mobile phone footage showed fighters among the burning wreckage, claiming they shot down the aircraft with a surface-to-air missile.
However, the Identity documents shown in the videos included a Russian passport and an ID that linked back to a UAE-based company, whose phone number has been disconnected.
A crumpled safety card, also purportedly from the aircraft, identified the plane as an Ilyushin Il-76 flown by New Way Cargo of Kyrgyzstan.
Civil aviation officials in Kyrgyzstan did not respond to a request for comment late Monday, but the OSINT website Aviation Safety Network confirmed the aircraft’s details.
The group Conflict Observatory, which is funded by the US State Department and has been monitoring the Sudan war, linked New Way Cargo’s Ilyushin Il-76s to arming the RSF in a report this month.
It said the airline had facilitated the UAE arms transfers through flights to Aéroport International Maréchal Idriss Deby in Amdjarass, Chad, where the flight was reportedly destined. The UAE doesn’t deny these flights but claims they are for supporting a local hospital.
Amdjarass is just across the border from Malha, where the shoot-down reportedly happened.
“The UAE has used the airport as a waypoint to facilitate weapons to the RSF,” the report said, noting that the Emirates offered a $1.5 billion (€1.3 billion) loan to rapidly expand the airport.
