Five Indian air force personnel have been killed after the aircraft they were travelling in crashed in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, according to officials.

The Antonov An-32 transport plane “met with an accident” during a “routine sortie” in Assam’s Jorhat region, the Indian Air Force said in a statement on Saturday.

“Crash site management and initial enquiries are on at this time,” the Air Force wrote, adding that an investigation to determine the cause of the accident was under way.

News channel NDTV broadcast images of the crash site, showing a thick black plume of smoke and the aircraft apparently broken into pieces.

India’s air force operates a fleet of about 105 An-32 aircraft to transport people and cargo.

The last major crash involving a  twin-engine turboprop took place in 2019 in Arunachal Pradesh state, near the border with China, when 13 people were killed

(Aljazeera)

A retired Nigerian army general who had been kidnapped by gunmen in the country’s north-west has died while being held captive, the military has said.

Maj Gen Rabe Abubakar, who had a high-profile job as military spokesman between 2015 and 2017, was abducted with his wife while travelling in Katsina state last month.

No group has said it was behind the kidnappings.

The abduction and death of Abubakar highlights the continuing security challenges facing parts of north-west Nigeria, where criminal gangs known locally as “bandits” frequently carry out kidnappings for ransom, as well as cattle rustling and attacks on rural communities.

Some militant jihadists have also operated in the region. An alleged militant camp in Sokoto state was the target of a US airstrike on 25 December last year.

Katsina has been one of the states most affected by the violence.

Local media reported that the retired officer had been going to a wedding on 30 May when armed men attacked his vehicle and seized him, his wife and their driver.

Days before news of his death emerged, a video shared on social media appeared to show Abubakar in captivity. He was seen with an apparent injury to his left leg alongside his wife and other hostages.

The military said it chose not to comment publicly on the abduction while efforts to free those in captivity were being made.

“In deference to ongoing rescue efforts by security agencies, the Armed Forces withheld public comment while every operational resource was deployed in the hope of securing his safe return,” the statement said.

The whereabouts and condition of Abubakar’s wife remain unknown. But a military spokesman said that “ongoing operations have since been further intensified to bring perpetrators to justice and to dismantle all terrorist networks threatening our nation”.

The military paid tribute to the major general, who local media reported was 61 when he died, describing the loss as “tragic” and offered condolences to his family and former colleagues.

A statement said he made “immense contributions to counter-insurgency operations… His commitment to duty and to the unity of Nigeria remains a shining example for all personnel.”

[BBC]

A South Korean court has sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to 30 years in jail for sending drones into North Korea.

Prosecutors argued that Yoon ordered the operation in October 2024 to provoke Pyongyang and create a pretext for his failed martial law bid later that year.

When Yoon declared martial law on 3 December, he had claimed he was protecting the country from “anti-state” forces that sympathised with North Korea. But it soon became clear he was driven by domestic troubles and he rolled back the order in the face of mass protests.

Yoon was impeached and is now serving time in prison after he was sentenced to life for insurrection over his botched martial law attempt.

On Friday, the Seoul District Court found Yoon, as well as his former defense minister Kim Yong-hyun, former head of the Defense Counterintelligence Command Yeo In-hyung and former head of Drone Operations Commands Kim Yong-dae guilty of treason and abuse of power.

Kim was sentenced to 30 years in jail, while Yeo received 15 years and Kim Yong-dae received three years in prison with a five-year suspended sentence.

“The defendants used the guise of a military operation to induce provocations from North Korea with the aim of creating a state of emergency,” the court said.

It added that all three officials had “provoked North Korea”, thus “increasing the risk of a military conflict”, but concluded that Yoon bore the “greatest responsibility” in this event.

Yoon’s lawyers had argued that his actions were a “legitimate” response to North Korea’s “provocations with rubbish balloons”.

This was a reference to North Korea dropping hundreds of balloons in 2024, which were later found to contain “filthy waste and trash”, across the border in the South.

The two countries have used such “propaganda balloons” in their campaigns since the Korean War, where messages are put inside the balloons.

But tensions shot up in 2024 when North Korea accused the South of flying drones into its capital. These drones allegedly scattered propaganda leaflets all over Pyongyang, in what the North described as a provocation that could lead to war.

It was Yoon who sent these drones into the North expecting it to strike back, said a judge in Friday’s ruling.

Apart from insurrection, Yoon has was also sentenced to five years in jail for abuse of power and obstructing his own arrest.

Yoon’s martial law attempt and the protests that followed created months of chaos in the country, ending in an election which saw the opposition Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung win a decisive mandate.

[BBC]