Hijacker of Sudanese plane arrested

Authorities in Chad have arrested the hijacker of Sudanese passenger plane after it  landed at the country's N'Djamena airport…

Authorities in Chad have arrested the hijacker of Sudanese passenger plane after it  landed at the country's N'Djamena airport.

"He has been arrested and will answer for his actions ... Chad is not a sanctuary for terrorists," according to Chad's Infrastructure Minister Adoum Younousmi.

The Air West domestic Sudanese flight was diverted by an armed Sudanese man at 9 a.m. (0600 GMT) who demanded the Boeing 737 fly onto N'Djamena.

"The plane has landed ... the hijacker was met by the French ambassador and all the passengers are safe," said Ahmed Salih, commercial director of Air West in Sudan.

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Another source at Khartoum airport said the plane was hijacked while in the air, 30 minutes after taking off.

The plane was headed to el-Fasher, the main town in Sudan's western Darfur region, he added.

It was not clear how the hijacker got on board the plane with a weapon, but Sudanese security is often lax, especially on internal flights.

In 2004 Eritreans seeking asylum hijacked a plane traveling from Libya to Eritrea and forced it to land in Khartoum airport. Sudan eventually granted the hijackers political asylum.