Sudan ministers among victims of plane crash

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.

Sudanese government helicopter crash kills 32

KHARTOUM, Sudan — A Sudanese government helicopter crashed Sunday before landing in a remote town in the country's southern mountains, killing all 32 people on board. The victims included the minister of endowment, a leading politician, two army generals and a TV crew.
The delegation was travelling to the volatile South Kordofan state to attend prayers on the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
The helicopter crashed "due to harsh weather conditions" in a mountainous area near Talodi, a small town about 650 kilometers (406 miles), southwest of the capital, Khartoum, according to the state-run news agency, SUNA.
A Sudanese official said the aircraft slammed into a mountain just before it was to land in Talodi and blamed "zero visibility" due to the seasonal heavy rains in the region. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.
He said a search team that reached the site of the crash was having trouble identifying the victims as many bodies were charred and torn into pieces.
The office of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir released a list of all 26 passengers and six crew members who perished in the crash.
Minister of Endowment Ghadi al-Sadeq and a leading member of Sudan's Peace and Justice Party, Makki Balayela, were on the list, as were two generals and other officials. A four-member TV crew from Sudan's state television also died in the crash.
Sudan has a poor aviation safety record, with a large number of jet accidents occurring on landing. In late 2010, a plane carrying 36 people crashed on landing in Sudan's western Darfur region, killing at least two people.
And in May 2008 – before South Sudan became a separate country – a plane crash in a remote area in the south killed 24 people, including key members of the regional southern Sudanese government.
Five years earlier, a Sudan Airways Boeing 737 en route from Port Sudan to Khartoum crashed soon after takeoff, killing all 115 people on board.