/ 24 January 2007

Sudanese plane hijacked to Chad, hijacker arrested

A man armed with a pistol hijacked a Sudanese airliner on Wednesday and tried to force it to fly to Britain, but it diverted to neighbouring Chad where he was arrested and the passengers released unharmed.

Chadian officials said the hijacker, a young Sudanese man, said he was trying to escape persecution in his own country.

The Sudanese Air West Boeing 737 with 103 passengers and crew on board was on a domestic flight from Khartoum to el-Fasher in the conflict-torn Darfur region when it was hijacked 30 minutes after takeoff.

”The hijacker was armed with a pistol and a knife. He demanded that the crew fly him to Great Britain but, due to lack of fuel, the plane had to land at Ndjamena,” Chad’s Infrastructure Minister Adoum Younousmi told Reuters.

”He has been arrested and will answer for his actions … Chad is not a sanctuary for terrorists,” he added.

Relations between landlocked Central African neighbours Chad and Sudan have been strained, with both countries accusing each other of supporting rebels seeking to topple their governments.

A four-year-old rebellion and ethnic conflict has been raging in Sudan’s western Darfur region, sending refugees and armed raiders spilling over the border into Chad.

Chadian soldiers and two armoured cars surrounded the hijacked plane after it landed at Ndjamena airport.

The hijacker, wearing a casual jacket over a T-shirt, was escorted from the plane by soldiers. He appeared calm and shook hands with the Chadian minister Younousmi before being driven away, witnesses at the airport said.

The 95 passengers and eight crew aboard, who were believed to be mostly Sudanese but included a Finnish woman and an Italian man, were taken by bus to the airport terminal, airport officials said. They were due to be returned to Sudan.

No foreign mediation

An Air West official had said earlier in Khartoum that the hijacker had requested asylum from the French embassy in Chad.

The French government denied any asylum request had been received. French military officials were at the airport.

Younousmi said the man had requested guarantees from the French embassy before he gave himself up, but that Chadian authorities refused to accept this.

”Chad alone is handling this crisis,” Younousmi said. ”There’s no question of involving different foreign embassies,” he added.

Sudanese air officials had originally reported the hijacker had been carrying an AK-47 rifle.

It was not immediately clear how he managed to smuggle a firearm on board the aircraft but Sudanese security is lax, especially on internal flights.

The hijack happened at a time when Chadian government forces were battling rebels on the eastern border with Sudan who have vowed to topple President Idriss Dèby. Dèby has accused Sudan of backing the insurgents, a charge denied by Khartoum. – Reuters