Hijackers say Ethiopia “lacks freedoms”

The hijacking of an Ethiopian military aircraft by five military academy students ended peacefully in the Sudan capital, Khartoum, at 0400 local time on Friday, official Sudanese radio reported on the same day. The aircraft was on an internal flight, carrying 50 passengers and crew, when it was hijacked on Thursday. It landed at Khartoum airport at 1820 local time, the radio said. The hijackers were armed with guns and hand grenades, and demanded to meet the British and US ambassadors in Khartoum.

The four men and one women, who surrendered to Sudanese authorities, first freed all their hostages unharmed. According to news agency reports, the hijackers first freed five children and six women, and later released 33 military personnel, and six crew members. The civilians on the plane were relatives of military personnel, Sudanese officials said.

Sudanese Information Minster Ghazi Salah al-Din al-Atabani told journalists that the hijackers gave up after realising that no third country would admit them, and after receiving assurances that Sudan would not return them to Ethiopia. However, Atabani told the BBC that the hijackers had not been given political asylum, and would be tried according to international laws. Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma’il told Qatar’s Al-Jazeera television that the hijackers had landed in Khartoum because they were running out of fuel, and that their intended destination was not known. The Sudan government - which enjoys good relations with Ethiopia - formed a committee to deal with the hijackers, Sudan local media said.

One of the hijackers was allowed to talk to journalists as he left the plane. He identified himself as Bagemberhan Tebegne, a member of Ethiopia’s air force. He said his group had hijacked the plane to “draw international attention to the terrible economic and political situation in Ethiopia and the lack of freedoms”, according to Associated Press (AP).