KHARTOUM / ISTANBUL

A Sudanese military cargo aircraft crashed late Tuesday in West Kordofan state, southern Sudan, the army said.

A military statement said the aircraft suffered a technical malfunction in its right wing, which led to a loss of balance and caused it to catch fire. The aircraft crashed tens of kilometers west of the Sudanese army’s position in the area.

The aircraft was carrying out a mission to airdrop supplies to its field units in the besieged city of Babanusa, where the army is engaged in clashes with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to the statement.

All crew members were killed in the incident, the army added, without specifying their number.

Earlier in the day, the RSF claimed responsibility for downing a military aircraft following alleged attacks on its forces in the area.

In recent days, the army has been airdropping supplies to support its forces in Babnousa, which has come under repeated RSF assaults.

The three Kordofan states -- North, West, and South -- have recently witnessed fierce clashes between the Sudanese army and the RSF.

The rebel group also captured El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, on Oct. 26 and carried out massacres of civilians, according to local and international organizations, triggering warnings that the takeover could cement a geographic partition of the war-torn country.

Since April 2023, the Sudanese army and the RSF have been locked in a civil war that has killed thousands of people, displaced millions of others and led to one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.