Some 16 Sudanese army officers died in a plane crash
Sudan, Local, 4/5/2001

The Sudanese army was exposed on Wednesday to a tough loss in a very critical phase at the level of war in South Sudan by loosing 16 of its high ranking army officers including the minister of state at the ministry of defense Maj. gen. Ibrahim Shams eddine, who was the youngest army officer at the " al-Inqaz ( Salvation) government" which toppled the then prime minister al-Sate al-Mahdi in 1989.

The plane crashed when it deviated from the runway upon landing at Edar Eil in the Higher Nile province, 500 Km to the South of al-Khartoum.

A statement by the Sudanese armed forces said that Shams Eddine was inspecting the army forces in the area. The Sudanese Presidency attributed the incident to bad weather conditions.

Shams Eddine the youngest among the 15-member group led by the current President Omar Hassan al-Bashir toppled the civilian government of al-Sadeq al-Mahdi in June 1989.

The first vice President Lt. Gen. al-Zubeir Muhammad Saleh, and a prominent leader of al-Inqaz revolution was killed also in a plane crash in al-Nasser town in the Higher Nile province in February 1998.

In June 1999, another military plane crashed, for technical reasons, according to the Sudanese authorities in Kasla province ( East) and this resulted in killing 50 persons including 6 army officers.

A spokesman for the rebels of the People's army for the liberation of Sudan said that the rebellions have no military presence in the area where the plane crashed.

Diplomatic sources in Khartoum said that Colonel Ibrahim Shams Eddine who was killed in the accident used to spend most of his time in the Southern and Eastern parts of the country, where he had led military operations against the rebellions of the People's Army led by col. John Garang The sources added the delegation includes southern army officers who were in a tour to inspect the soldiers stationed in the region.

The officers who are at the ranks of Lt. Generals are Malik al-haj Khuder; Bakri Khaleifa Omar, Sayed al-Abeid Abdul Halim; Kamal eddine Ali al-Ameen; Ali Kawal; Yassin Arabi Muhammad and Faisal Issa Abu Fatemah.

However, the higher Nile province is considered of the oil areas in Southern Sudan where the civil war erupted since 1983.

On the other hand, the incident takes place in the Sudan at a time when political tension has been escalated in Sudan in the course of the conflict between President al-Bashir and the former parliament speaker Hassan al-Turabi and also amid a time of international controversy on Sudan's use of its oil revenues in the war taking place in Southern Sudan.