Occupation of the Khartoum International Airport | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the War in Sudan and the Battle of Khartoum | |||||||
Khartoum International Airport in early 2020 | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Sudanese Armed Forces | Rapid Support Forces | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Abdel Fattah al-Burhan Malik Agar Shams al-Din Kabbashi Yasser al-Atta Ibrahim Karima Abdelrahman El Tayeb † | Hemedti Abdelrahim Dagalo | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
2 civilians killed [1] |
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) occupation of the Khartoum International Airport is an ongoing military occupation of Sudan's most important airport, the Khartoum International Airport, by the Rapid Support Forces during the War in Sudan as part of the Battle of Khartoum.
The RSF forces managed to capture the airport in the early hours of the attacks on Khartoum, the airport itself was the place of the first official attack of the entire conflict. The attack also killed two people. [2] [3]
The occupation of the airport caused the destruction of between 10 and 20 civilian aircraft from several countries. [4] [5] Attacks on it continued across the occupation, destroying the airport. [6] [7]
Khartoum International Airport is located in the city of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, and it is the largest airport in Sudan. It is considered the headquarters and operations center of Sudan Airways and Badr Airlines. The current location of the airport is considered a threat to air safety and urban security standards, and the Sudanese government decided to close the current airport after completing the construction of the new Khartoum Airport, which is being built 40 km from the center of Khartoum.
The airport was established following World War II in 1947, and was expanded to accommodate air traffic in the 1970s and 1980s.
In the early hours of the morning of 15 April 2023, the Rapid Support Forces initiated a series of assaults on key installations in Khartoum, including the Khartoum International Airport. During the attack on the airport, the RSF reportedly fired on a Saudia airliner which was arriving at the airport, but no casualties were reported among the aircraft's passengers and crew. [8] [9] [10] The RSF also captured the presidential palace, the residence of former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, and attacked a military base. [11] [12] In the fighting at the Khartoum airport, two civilians were killed. [13] Hemedti claimed that the RSF controlled most of the city's government buildings, but this was disputed by Burhan. [14]
The same day, several aerial attacks against the RSF targets were conducted by the SAF. Users on Facebook Live and Twitter documented the Sudanese Air Force (SAF) flying above the city and striking the RSF targets. [15] On 17 April, the Sudanese government announced the closure of Sudan's airspace, initially limited solely to that of Khartoum. A ceasefire was declared on 18 April at 18:00 local time, leading to a reduction in fighting in the vicinity of the airport. [16] [17]
On 15 April 2023, the first day of war. It was shown according to Flightradar24, several aircraft belonging to Saudia, Badr Airlines, and SkyUp Airlines were damaged. Later, Saudia confirmed that one of its planes was targeted before takeoff, leading to the evacuation of all passengers, crew, and staff to the Saudi Embassy. [18]
Later on 17 April 2023, it was shown by an analysis made by the New York Times via satellite, from both Maxar and Planet Labs, that showed that around 20 planes were destroyed during the attacks at the airport. [19]
As of 21 April, the following destroyed or damaged aircraft were reported in Khartoum: [20] [21]
Following the conflict and destruction at Khartoum International Airport, flights on several airlines to and from Sudan were promptly cancelled. [19] The ongoing fighting in the vicinity of the airport and the destruction of civilian aircraft posed significant challenges for evacuating foreigners from the area. As a result, many individuals had no choice but to undertake long journeys by car to Port Sudan, approximately 650 km northeast of Khartoum. [23]
Furthermore, the destruction of the World Food Programme's aircraft severely impacted the organization's capacity to transport staff and deliver assistance to people across the country. [24]
On 28 April, a Turkish evacuation plane came under fire at the Wadi Saida airbase. The aircraft's fuselage sustained damage, particularly to the fuel system, requiring major repairs. [25]
On 26 August 2023, an explosion made near the Khartoum International Airport caused damage across the city of Khartoum. Sudanese Armed Forces later said that the explosion occurred due to a fire caused by an aviation fuel depot inside the airport. The SAF also carried out attacks against the RSF forces in the airport. [26]
Saudia, formerly known as Saudi Arabian Airlines, is the flag carrier of Saudi Arabia, based in Jeddah. The airline's main hub is at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah and King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh.
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Khartoum International Airport is the principal airport in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. The airport has been shut down since it was stormed and occupied on 15 April 2023 during the Battle of Khartoum.
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Sudan Airways Flight 139 was a Sudan Airways passenger flight that crashed on 8 July 2003 at Port Sudan. The Boeing 737 aircraft was operating a domestic scheduled Port Sudan–Khartoum passenger service. Some 15 minutes after takeoff, the aircraft lost power in one of its engines, which prompted the crew to return to the airport for an emergency landing. In doing so, the pilots missed the airport runway, and the airplane descended until it hit the ground, disintegrating after impact. Of the 117 people aboard, 116 died.
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Many aviation-related events took place in 2023.
The following lists events during 2023 in the Republic of the Sudan.
A civil war between two rival factions of the military government of Sudan, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under the Janjaweed leader, Hemedti, began during Ramadan on 15 April 2023. Fighting has been concentrated around the capital city of Khartoum and the Darfur region. As of 21 January 2024, at least 13,000–15,000 people had been killed and 33,000 others were injured. As of 21 March, over 6.5 million were internally displaced and more than two million others had fled the country as refugees, and many civilians in Darfur have been reported dead as part of the 2023 Masalit massacres.
The battle of Khartoum is an ongoing battle for control of Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan, with fighting in and around the city between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and the Sudanese Armed Forces. The battle began on 15 April 2023, after the RSF captured Khartoum International Airport, several military bases, and the presidential palace, starting an escalating series of clashes.
Operation Kaveri was an operation conducted by the Indian Armed Forces to evacuate Indian citizens and foreign nationals from Sudan during the 2023 Sudan conflict. The evacuation was conducted by air and sea, most likely in Port Sudan where most of the evacuations were done by Indian Navy through INS Sumedha. The operation was conducted for the evacuations of thousands of Indians in Sudan, primarily in Khartoum, the capital of the country.
The following is a timeline of the War in Sudan in 2023.
The humanitarian crisis following the 2023 Sudan conflict was further exacerbated by the violence occurring during a period of high temperatures, drought and the conflict starting during the latter part of the fasting month of Ramadan. Most residents were unable to venture outside of their homes to obtain food and supplies for fear of getting caught in the crossfire. A doctors' group said that hospitals remained understaffed and were running low on supplies as wounded people streamed in. The World Health Organization recorded around 26 attacks on healthcare facilities, some of which resulted in casualties among medical workers and civilians. The Sudanese Doctors' Union said more than two-thirds of hospitals in conflict areas were out of service with 32 forcibly evacuated by soldiers or caught in the crossfire. The United Nations reported that shortages of basic goods, such as food, water, medicines and fuel have become "extremely acute". The delivery of badly-needed remittances from overseas migrant workers was also halted after Western Union announced it was closing all operations in Sudan until further notice.
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