Sudan’s army says paramilitary forces hit Turkish evacuation plane

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shot at a Turkish evacuation plane as it was landing at Wadi Seyidna airport outside Khartoum on Friday, damaging its fuel system, Sudan’s army said.

Hundreds have died and tens of thousands of people have fled in two weeks of conflict between the army and its rival.

The two factions agreed late on Thursday to prolong a ceasefire by 72 hours to allow for humanitarian access, but fighting flared in parts of the capital Khartoum on Friday, according to eyewitnesses and live video broadcasts.

Turkey’s defence ministry confirmed that a Turkish evacuation plane had been fired at and said there were no injuries. The RSF denied firing at the plane and said the army was “spreading lies”.

“Our forces have remained strictly committed to the humanitarian truce that we agreed upon since midnight, and it is not true that we targeted any aircraft in the sky of Wadi Seyidna in Omdurman,” the RSF said in a statement.

The Sudanese army said the plane was being repaired.

(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz and Tala Ramadan; Writing by Nadine Awadalla)