DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces said Monday they shot down a cargo jet in the country’s far western reaches of Darfur, a claim that Russian diplomats said they were trying to investigate in the war zone.
Few details of the purported shoot-down were immediately available. Mobile phone footage showed what appeared to be a debris field with fighters showing off what appeared to be identity documents recovered from the crash.
A message from Russia's Embassy in Khartoum confirmed its diplomats were investigating the incident in Sudan's Malha region in northern Darfur near the border with Chad. The embassy's message said Russians may have been on board at the time.
The paramilitary force, known as the RSF, has been at war with the Sudanese army since April 2023.
A request to the RSF for comment from The Associated Press was not immediately returned. However, the paramilitary force claimed in a statement it shot down a “foreign warplane” that had been aiding the Sudanese military. It 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.
Associated Press writer Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.
