Plane hijacked and flown into Sahara Desert

Malaysia News.Net
Tuesday 26th August, 2008

An airliner has been forced to land by hijackers who boarded the flight in Sudan's wartorn Darfur region.

The attackers seized the jetliner carrying nearly 100 people, forcing it to land at a World War II-era airfield in the heart of the Sahara Desert in neighboring Libya.

A Libyan official at the remote Kufra airport said there were 10 hijackers belonging to the Darfur rebel Sudan Liberation Movement.

The male hijackers demanded enough fuel for the Boeing 737 to continue to France.

The flight was commandeered soon after taking off from Nyala, capital of southern Darfur, en route to Khartoum, the national capital.

The plane was diverted to Kufra, a desert oasis in southeast Libya, some 1,000 miles from Tripoli.

An SLM spokesman has denied the involvement of his group and has said the Sudanese government has fabricated a story.

By early Wednesday, the plane had not refueled and it was not known whether the Libyans would allow it to do so.

Some Libyan troops are located at the airfield.

The hijacked airliner belongs to the private company, Sun Air.

Among the passengers were former rebels who have become members of the Darfur Transitional Authority, an interim government body responsible for implementing a peace agreement reached in 2006 between the government and one of the rebel factions.

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