At least 46 people were killed, with the death toll expected to rise, after a military plane crashed in a residential area in Omdurman, Sudan, on Wednesday.

The crash in Omdurman, across river from the capital, Khartoum, reportedly killed military personnel as well as civilians.

"Search efforts are still ongoing to find the remaining martyrs under the rubble," the Health Ministry said in a statement.

They added that the incident occurred near Wadi Seidna air base, and involved an Antonov aircraft. Military sources told the Reuters news agency that technical failure was the likely cause of the crash.

Among those killed was Major General Bahr, the former military commander for all of Khartoum.

Internal conflict claims hundreds of thousands of lives

The Sudanese army has been at war with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) faction since April 2023, following a falling out between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamadan Daglo.

The ensuing conflict has devastated the capital Khartoum and many other cities and towns. At least 150,000 people have been killed, most of them civilians. Observers believe the actual death toll may be much higher.

More than 10 million people have been displaced in the conflict. There have also been reports of massacres along ethnic lines in the country's long-unstable Darfur region.

Edited by Zac Crellin