A plane
downed in Sudan's North Darfur state had Russian crew members and was being
used by the army to resupply the besieged city of al-Fashir, according to the
opposing faction and documents it said were found in the wreckage.
The incident
offers a glimpse into the murky supply networks behind the more than 18-month
war between Sudan's army and the
Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that has uprooted more
than 11 million people, caused widespread
hunger and drawn in foreign
powers.
Flight
tracking data and information from social media accounts that have not been
previously reported suggest the transport plane switched months ago from
supplying the RSF to the army. A Reuters analysis of the documents, footage and
social media indicate at least one of the Russian crew had a past in arms
trafficking.
Officials
from the RSF shared footage showing its troops standing around the burning
wreckage of the plane which they said they had shot down in al-Malha, north of
al-Fashir, in the early hours of Monday.
In rare
details on foreign involvement near front lines, the RSF also shared pictures
purporting to show identity documents of two Russians they said were on board,
along with three Sudanese army personnel.
An RSF source
later said the aircraft was an Ilyushin transport plane used to carry out air
drops of weapons, ammunition and provisions for al-Fashir, where the army and
allied former rebel groups have been trying for months to fend off RSF attacks.
Yacoub and
her four children moved from Khartoum in May 2023, shortly after the war
between Sudan’s Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces broke
out.
It had just
made a delivery when hit, the source said.
Remnants of
the plane's engine and stabilizer components match those of a Russian-made
Ilyushin IL76 cargo plane, according to an analysis of the videos by the
London-based Centre for Information Resilience, a non-profit group, which
located the crash site 80 miles north of al-Fashir.
Reuters was
able to confirm the location of the videos by the shape of the mountains,
terrain layout and vegetation.
Sudan's army
did not respond to requests for comment about the plane. Reuters could not
independently confirm how the plane had been downed or what route it was
flying.
Reuters
identified at least two Russians thought to have been on board the plane by
matching footage shared by the RSF of their IDs with social media profiles.
Reuters used public databases of leaked personal data, facial recognition
searches, and access to an official Russian database to confirm the identity of
the suspected crew members.
Russia's
embassy in Sudan has said it is investigating the incident. The Russian foreign
ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Sudanese
military is known to have commonly employed crews from ex-Soviet countries.
Switching
routes
Sudan's war
began after frictions between the RSF and army, which had previously shared
power after staging a coup, erupted
as they jostled for position ahead of a planned transition towards
civilian rule. Both sides have received foreign support.
Among the
photos of documents circulating online and in some media after the plane was
downed was a set of safety instructions showing the registration number
EX-76011.
EX-76011 is
the number of an IL-76 previously operated by New Way Cargo, an airline
identified as supplying the RSF via Chad with backing from the United Arab
Emirates, according to a report this month from the Sudan Conflict Observatory,
a monitoring platform funded by the U.S. State Department.
RSF officials
said they could not confirm the plane's registration number. A reverse image
search did not bring up any earlier public posts of photos of the safety
instruction document, lessening the chances that it was an old photo from
another location.
The UAE has
denied reports of giving military support to the RSF. A United Nations panel of
experts found the reports credible.
Flight
tracking data and satellite imagery analysed by Reuters show EX-76011 flying on
routes towards Chad up until November last year.
However, the
last available data for the plane, from December 2023, show it flying to Port
Sudan on the Red Sea coast, the de facto headquarters of the army.
Information
from Swiss intelligence provider ch-aviation shows EX-76011 was operated by New
Way Cargo, an airline based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and managed by Astraway
FZC, a UAE-based aviation service company.
Kyrgyzstan's
civil aviation agency told Reuters the plane was removed from its register and
transferred to Sudan on Jan. 12 this year. Astraway FZC said it stopped working
with EX-76011 and its crew in December 2023.
Representatives
from New Way Cargo did not respond.
The safety
instructions with the EX-76011 tail number are labelled with the name
"NeWay Cargo". The logo and styling are similar to those of NeWay
Logistics LLC, a Dubai-based charter broker.
Erwin Burger,
owner and general manager of NeWay Logistics LLC, told Reuters on Monday that
they had nothing to do with the airline or the flight.
"Someone
is illegally using our company logo," he said.
Russian
crew
One of the
suspected crew members is Victor Granov, 67, whose work ID, South African
driver's license and expired passport were found in the wreckage, according to
footage provided by the RSF. Information from a LinkedIn account and Russian
court records show him living in South Africa.
A 2005 report
by rights group Amnesty identifies Granov as a South Africa-based businessman
formerly associated with Victor Bout, a notorious arms dealer released in a
prisoner swap between Russia and the U.S. in 2022.
According to
the report, Granov ran two airlines accused of violating an arms embargo in the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
Granov's
daughter and ex-wife did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Bout
could not be reached for comment.
A second
suspected crew member is Anton Selivanets, 33, whose Russian passport was found
at the site, according to footage shared by the RSF.
Photos of
Selivanets on social networks Instagram and OK show him posing with IL76 planes
labelled with the World Food Programme (WFP) logo at airports in Ethiopia.
WFP said
Selivanets is not a crew member or contractor for the organisation. Selivanets'
wife did not respond to text messages requesting comment.
The RSF also
sent Reuters a video they said came from a mobile phone recovered from the
plane. Reuters identified one of the men in the video as Russian Alexander
Kabanov, 61, who posted the same video to his VK and Tiktok accounts more than
a year ago.
Kabanov's
social media accounts show that he served in the elite airborne troops and
spent several years in Africa, particularly in Uganda, Sudan and South Sudan.
Reuters could not confirm who the phone belonged to.
Kabanov's
relatives did not respond to requests for comment.