Hijacked Sudanese Passenger Plane Lands in Libya

Related: Khartoum Holds Intensive Contacts with Libya on Hijacked Plane

A Sudanese passenger plane which was hijacked on Tuesday at Niyala, the capital city of South Darfur State in the restive western Sudanese region of Darfur, has landed in Libya, Qatar's al-Jazeera TV reported.

The plane, which was hijacked after taking off at the Niyala airport flying toward Khartoum, has landed at al-Kufrah Airport, according to the report.

The Dubai-based Al Arabiya TV said the plane was carrying 83 passengers and was hijacked by a Sudanese man.

A spokesman for the Sudanese Civil Aviation Authority, Abdel Hafiz Abdel Rahim, said "a plane has been hijacked and is thought to be in Libya."

The plane belongs to Sunair, a Khartoum-based private airline, an aviation source said.

Libya's Civil Aviation Authority confirmed the plane had landed at al-Kufrah, an oasis town in the country's southeast, Libya's state news agency Jana reported.

Al Arabiya TV said the plane flew to al-Kufrah to refuel and the hijacker wanted the plane to fly to Cairo.

The Egyptian authorities, however, have denied the permission for the plane's landing.

The Egyptian state news agency MENA quoted Sunair as saying that four men hijacked the plane.

Only several hours earlier, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir accused the armed rebel movements in Darfur of "continuing organized robbery and spoilage" in the region.

Addressing a ceremony of celebration for the graduation of a new batch of officers at a military academy in Khartoum, al-Bashir said that "foreign powers are supporting the armed movements in Darfur in order to weaken the country and steal its resources".

More than ten thousand of people have been killed and millions of others displaced in the five-year-long conflict in Darfur.