Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced on Thursday that they had downed an Antonov military plane belonging to the General al-Burhan’s army (SAF) in northern Darfur.
The RSF released a video claiming to show the wreckage of the aircraft, though media has not been able to independently verify the footage.
SAF officials were not immediately available for comment. The RSF has previously shot down military planes, including a transport aircraft that crashed in northern Darfur last October.
RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, stated on Sunday that his forces’ war against the SAF was far from over, and they would eventually return to Khartoum despite withdrawing from the capital.
The Sudanese group, which maintains a stronghold in Darfur, was driven out of most areas of Khartoum last month after occupying them for nearly two years, since the start of the war with the SAF.
The conflict erupted from a power struggle between the SAF and the RSF ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule. It has devastated much of Khartoum, displaced over 12 million Sudanese people, and left approximately half of Sudan’s 50 million population facing severe hunger.
While the exact death toll remains unclear, a study published last year estimated that up to 61,000 people may have died in Khartoum state alone in the first 14 months of the conflict.
