Zeenews Bureau
Khartoum: A plane carrying a ministerial delegation crashed in Sudan’s South Kordofan state, killing all 32 on board, President`s office said on Sunday.
The dead included Sudanese Minister for Guidance and Religious Endowments Ghazi al-Sadiq and a leading member of Sudan`s Peace and Justice Party, Makki Balayela.
"The plane, Antinov, belonging to a civil aviation company, left Khartoum at 6.00 am,” Sudan`s Civil Aviation spokesperson Abdul-Hafez Abdul-Rahim said.
They were en route to the volatile South Kordofan state, to attend prayers for a Muslim holiday.
South Kordofan State has been recently witnessing armed clashes between the Sudanese Army and the Sudan People`s Liberation Army (SPLA).
The spokesperson did not decline the possibility of the plane getting exposed to "some hostile act".
However, reports from Sudan`s state news agency SUNA said the plane crashed "due to harsh weather conditions" in a mountainous area near Talodi, a small town about 650 kilometres, or 406 miles, southwest of the capital, Khartoum.
(With Agency inputs)
