A civilian plane crashed after taking off from an airport in eastern Sudan, killing nine people, including four military personnel who were aboard the aircraft, the military said. The conflict in the north-eastern African country reached the 100-day mark with no sign of abating.

The military said in a statement that a child survived late Sunday’s crash in Port Sudan, a city on the Red Sea that so far has been spared from the devastating war between the military and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

The Antonov plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, the military said. It blamed a technical failure for the crash. The statement provided no further details.

Sudan has plunged into chaos since mid-April when months-long tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere across the country.

The fighting has turned Khartoum and other urban areas into battlefields. The sprawling region of Darfur saw some of the worst bouts of violence in the conflict with the fighting turning into ethnic clashes.

The clashes have killed more than 3,000 people and wounded more than 6,000 others, Health Minister Haitham Mohammed Ibrahim said in televised comments last month. The casualty tally is likely much higher, according to doctors and activists.

More than 2.6 million people fled their homes to safer areas inside Sudan, while more than 757,000 people crossed into neighbouring countries, according to the UN migration agency.

Talks between the military and the RSF in the Saudi Arabian coastal city of Jeddah repeatedly failed to stop the fighting. The Jeddah talks were brokered by Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Source: Oman News Agency