Cairo: A Sudanese airstrike hit an airport in the country’s Darfur region controlled by a notorious paramilitary group, destroying a suspected Emirati military aircraft and killing dozens of suspected mercenaries, Sudanese officials and a rebel adviser said Thursday.
Wednesday’s strike on the Nyala airport killed at least 40 suspected mercenaries from Colombia and destroyed a shipment of arms and equipment that were sent by the United Arab Emirates to the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, according to two Sudanese military officials and an adviser to a Darfur rebel leader allied with RSF.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to brief the media. The adviser also requested anonymity for his safety.
Sudan plunged into chaos when simmering tensions between the military and RSF exploded into fighting in April 2023 in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.
The fighting has turned into a full-fledged civil war that killed tens of thousands of people, displaced more than 14 million people and pushed parts of the country into famine.
The war has been marked by atrocities, including mass killings and rape in what is being investigated as war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
State-run Sudan TV reported the aircraft had taken off from a military base in the Arab Gulf region, and that Sudanese fighter jets struck it when it landed at the Nyala airport.