KHARTOUM: Thirty-two people, including a Sudanese minister and other officials, were killed when a plane taking them to an Eid Al Fitr festival crashed in the south of the country yesterday, the state media said.

The plane went down in mountains around Talodi, a town in the border state of South Kordofan, while taking them there, state news agency SUNA said, blaming the crash on "bad weather conditions".

Guidance and Endowments Minister Ghazi Al Sadeq, State Minister for Youth and Sports Mahjoub Abdel Raheem Toutou and State Minister for Tourism, Antiquities and Wildlife Eissa Daifallah were killed, along with several people associated with the military, state security and state media.

It did not say if the plane belonged to state-owned Sudan Airways.

There have been crashes in recent years involving Sudan Airways, whose fleet has been degraded by years of US sanctions and other problems. A Sudan Airways cargo plane crashed while taking off in the UAE in 2009 and another crashed shortly after take-off from Khartoum in 2008.

South Kordofan borders South Sudan, which seceded last in July last year. The Sudan People's Liberation Movement North, the main rebel group, said it had nothing to do with the crash.