Plane downed in Darfur with suspected Russian crew was supplying army, rivals say

By Khalid Abdelaziz, Reade Levinson and Filipp Lebedev

DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - 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.

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.

(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz in Dubai, Reade Levinson and Filipp Lebedev in London; Additional reporting by Eleanor Whalley in London, Gleb Stolyarov in Tbilisi, Milan Pavicic in Gdansk and Inaki Malvido in Mexico City; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)