AFRICA: Sudanese plane hijackers release hostages

THE hijackers of a Sudanese plane that was forced to land in Libya released some passengers on Wednesday, Egyptian television said.

The airliner was hijacked on Tuesday after leaving Sudan's war-battered Darfur region. Libya's Civil Aviation Authority said 95 passengers were on the Boeing 737/200.

"Passengers of the hijacked plane have started to leave it," state-run Egyptian television said, without giving further details.

There was no immediate confirmation from Libyan authorities in the remote Sahara desert oasis of Kufrah, where the plane was forced to land.

Arab television stations earlier said the hijackers had agreed to free women and children.

The manager of the Sun Air airline which was flying the plane said negotiations had begun over the hijacked plane. He referred to only a single hijacker.

"At the moment there is no information on why the man hijacked the plane. The only demands we know about are for food and fuel and to allow the plane to fly to France," Mortada Hassan, executive manager of Sun Air, said in Khartoum.

Libya's state news agency Jana said the hijackers had demanded fuel to fly to Paris.

The pilot told Libyan authorities the hijackers claimed to be members of a branch of the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM), a Darfur rebel group.

"They said they belong to SLM's Abdel Wahed Nur who lives in Paris. They had coordinated with him to meet them in the French capital," Jana quoted the pilot as telling Libyan authorities.

The SLM faction led by Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur strongly denied the hijackers were members of the group.

The Jana agency said Libya granted permission for the plane to land after the pilot told the authorities the plane was running out of fuel.

Three senior members of a former Darfur rebel movement which has signed a peace accord with the government were among the passengers, a spokesman for their group said.

Members of the Darfur regional government were also aboard the hijacked plane, the Egyptian state news agency MENA said.

The plane, belonging to Khartoum-based private airline Sunair, took off from the South Darfur capital for Khartoum.

Egyptian authorities refused it permission to land in Egypt and the plane changed course towards Libya, Arabic TV channel Al Jazeera said.

The Darfur region has been riven by conflict since a rebellion against Khartoum's rule broke out more than five years ago. International experts say more than 2.5 million Darfuris have been driven from their homes and 200,000 people killed. Sudan puts the death toll at about 10,000.

The insurgents are split into more than dozen factions.

 

Reuters