A plane carrying Sudanese military and political leaders crashed Thursday in southern Sudan, killing the vice president, a key leader in the country's Islamic government.
At least seven others died when the plane crashed in bad weather as it landed in al-Nasir, the government said. The plane, carrying more than 50 passengers, skidded off the runway and into the Sobat River, one of the tributaries of the Nile."A number of the cream of the leadership of the nation have been martyred," a government statement said.
Among the dead was Sudan's vice president, Maj. Gen. Zubair Mohamed Saleh.
Saleh, 54, played a major role in the 1989 coup that brought the government to power, and was a close ally of Hassan Turabi, the parliament speaker and government ideologue.
"He rests today as a martyr for God and for achieving peace," President Omar el-Bashir said in an address on national television.
Also on board the plane was the culture and information minister, Brig. Gen. el-Tayeb Ibrahim Mohamed Kheir. There was no immediate word on whether Kheir was among those killed.
Al-Nasir is about 500 miles south of the capital, Khartoum.
The officials were on a two-day visit to southern Sudan, where animist and Christian rebels are fighting for autonomy from the Arab, Muslim-dominated government in the north.