Two state ministers were among 31 government officials killed in a plane crash in Sudan, according to state television.
The group was an official delegation to Southern Kordofan, a war-torn state that has seen ongoing fighting between the Sudanese army and rebel groups. They were traveling to attend a function marking the Muslim Eid holiday.
"All people on board were killed," said Abdelhafiz Abdelrahim, the spokesman for the Sudan Aviation Authority, according to the AFP news agency.
He said the plane was landing in Talodi, a small town about 600km southwest of Khartoum, when "an explosion was heard and the plane was destroyed."
Ahmed Bilal Osman, the culture and information minister, told the official Radio Omdurman that the plane "crashed into a hill" because of bad weather.
Recent crashes in Sudan
The victims included Ghazi al-Sadiq, the head of the ministry of guidance and endowments, and Issa Deif Allah, the state minister for the environment.
Sadiq was assigned to the job during a cabinet reshuffle last month; previously he had been the minister of tourism and antiquities.
It is unclear whether the plane belonged to the state-owned Sudan Airways or another carrier.
There have been several crashes in recent years involving Sudan Airways, which has been worn down by years of US sanctions and other problems. A Sudan Airways cargo plane crashed when it was taking off in the United Arab Emirates in 2009, and another cargo plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Khartoum in 2008.
Oil-producing Southern Kordofan borders South Sudan, which seceded over a year ago. The border state has been the site of an insurgency since shortly before South Sudan's independence.
Khartoum accused rebels of killing a state official and seven other people there in July. A spokesman for the man rebel group in the army, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement North, said the insurgents had nothing to do with Sunday's plane crash.
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