{"id":2679,"date":"2018-12-12T12:50:49","date_gmt":"2018-12-12T12:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/?p=2679"},"modified":"2018-12-12T12:50:49","modified_gmt":"2018-12-12T12:50:49","slug":"sudan-government-officials-killed-in-helicopter-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2018\/12\/12\/sudan-government-officials-killed-in-helicopter-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"Sudan government officials killed in helicopter crash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At least seven local government officials have been killed in a helicopter crash in Sudan&#8217;s eastern Gadarif state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The state&#8217;s governor and three security officials were among the dead, the country&#8217;s official&nbsp;news agency, SUNA, reported&nbsp;on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Governor Mirghani Salih was travelling from the city of Gadarif heading to Gallabat, Ashorooq TV reported. Both cities are in Gadarif.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A number of people were also injured in the incident, SUNA said. The officials were carrying out a security tour of the province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Witnesses said the helicopter caught fire after hitting a communications tower as it tried to land in a field in Gadarif, which known for its farmland and agricultural projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Flames and thick dark smoke rose from the aircraft,&#8221; one of the witnesses, Adam Hassan, told AFP news agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was not immediately clear what caused the crash. State TV earlier reported that a plane, not a helicopter, had crashed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Series of crashes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most of Sudan&#8217;s military and civilian fleet consists of old Soviet-made aircraft, and the country has suffered a series of crashes in recent years, with the military frequently blaming technical problems and bad weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In October, eight people were injured in a collision between two Sudanese army planes on the runway at Khartoum airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Weeks earlier in September, two pilots were killed when their military jet crashed near Omdurman, Khartoum&#8217;s twin city on the west bank of the Nile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That accident came days after a military helicopter crashed and caught fire on landing in Darfur, though all passengers were rescued.<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At least seven local government officials have been killed in a helicopter crash in Sudan&#8217;s eastern Gadarif state. The state&#8217;s governor and three security officials were among the dead, the country&#8217;s official&nbsp;news agency, SUNA, reported&nbsp;on Sunday. Governor Mirghani Salih was travelling from the city of Gadarif heading to Gallabat, Ashorooq TV reported. Both cities are in Gadarif. A number of&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2018\/12\/12\/sudan-government-officials-killed-in-helicopter-crash\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2680,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2679\/revisions\/2680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}