UNAMID helicopter crashes near displaced camp in South Darfur

September 29, 2008 (EL-FASHER) — A helicopter hired by the U.N. crashed in southern Darfur today near the largest camp of internally displaced. Sudan accused the rebels of the shooting but the hybrid force said investigating the incident.

“Earlier this morning, a Mi-8 helicopter contracted by ‘Supreme’, a UN-contracted company, crashed near Kalma Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp shortly after its takeoff from Nyala, Southern Darfur.” the UNAMID said in a short communiqué on Monday.

The Russian helicopter was carrying food supplies to a site of the joint African Union – United Nations troops in Muhajiria. All the four crew members (three Russian and one Sudanese) on board were killed.

The chopper crashed in an area between Kalma camp and Nyala airport. Two of the crew members died at the scene while two other died of their wounds at the hospital later.

While the UNAMID said still probing the causes of the crash, the Sudanese police accused the rebel groups saying they fired at.

“The people who did this are believed to be from one of the (rebel) movements,” Major-General Ibrahim Fadl Al-Molla, the assistant director-general for security and criminal investigations, in a press conference held in Khartoum.

The helicopter is privately owned by Badr Airlines, a Sudanese company, but is painted white as is usual for UN aircraft.

On September 23, the European Union condemned the Sudanese army’s use of white planes in Darfur, calling it a deliberate attempt to create confusion with UN planes.

The spokesperson f the Internally Displaced People in Darfur, in a telephone call from Kalama camp, dismissed Sudanese police accusations saying there was no any rebel presence in the camp.
Hussein Abu Sharati further said that UNAMID teams were inside the camp as well as humanitarian organisations and they could prove what he said.

The IDPs spokesperson also said that Sudanese authorities still determined to close the camp and seek pretexts to undertake such forcibly dismantlement, despite the killing of more than thirty displaced on August 25, by Sudanese troops in Kalma.

The representative further disclosed that the government alleges there are rebel-held courts inside the camp but he strongly rejected the claim.

(ST)