Red Cross Plane Attacked in Sudan; Co-Pilot Killed

The Sudanese government and southern rebels exchanged accusations over who was responsible for shooting at a Red Cross plane and killing its co-pilot over southern Sudan on Wednesday.

The plane was hit twice about halfway through its flight from Lokichokio, Kenya, to Juba, Sudan. One exploding shell damaged the cockpit and killed the co-pilot and another damaged the right wing, said Michael Kleiner, a Red Cross spokesman in Nairobi.

The pilot, who was not injured, landed the damaged nine-seat Beechcraft King Air at Lokichokio in northwestern Kenya.

Red Cross operations in Sudan were suspended after the shooting, said Francoise Comtesse, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.

The co-pilot was identified as Ole Friis Eriksen, 26, of Denmark.

Southern Sudanese rebels and government forces have been fighting a civil war in southern Sudan since 1983.

“In that area we have no forces. In the countryside, there are government-supported militia, and they must have done the shooting,” said Samson Kwaje, a spokesman for the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

But Sudanese Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Shol Deng said in Khartoum that “the plane was subjected to fire from areas under the control of rebel groups.”