A Sudanese passenger jet hijacked shortly after takeoff from the country's war-torn region of Darfur by unknown assailants on Tuesday has landed in Libya with more than 100 people on board.
  
The Sun Air Boeing 737 took off from Nyala, the largest city in Darfur, at 4:40 pm (1340 GMT) and was bound for Khartoum, airline officials said.
  
"After 20 minutes the pilot called Nyala airport to tell him the plane had been hijacked and that he is en route to Tripoli in Libya," one employee said, refusing to give his name because he was not authorised to speak to the press.
  
Airline staff had no details on who was behind the hijacking.
  
Two senior commanders from different Darfur rebel factions, which have been fighting against the Khartoum regime for five years, said they had no immediate information on the hijacking when contacted by AFP.
  
"The plane landed in Kufra," Sun Air executive manager Mortada Hassan told AFP at Khartoum airport less than four hours after the jet took off, referring to the remote oasis town in the southern Libyan desert.
  
He said there were 95 passengers and seven crew on board the plane, after two other airline staff earlier told AFP that 87 passengers were on the flight.
  
The Sun Air security manager warned that the plane was short on fuel, charging that the aircraft diverted to Libya after being refused permission to land in Cairo. The Libyan authorities then allowed the jet to land.
  
Sun Air is a privately owned company that operates domestic passenger services across Sudan, the largest country in Africa where aviation safety records are poor.
  
Sudan has a history of hijacking incidents, having both received and been the country of origin of hijacked planes.
  
Sudan suffered four fatal air accidents in two months earlier this year, leading to the sacking of the civil aviation boss on June 30.
  
Darfur tensions have heightened in Sudan since the International Criminal Court prosecutor last month requested an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Beshir for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
  
The United Nations says that up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million fled their homes since the conflict erupted in February 2003. Sudan says 10,000 have been killed.
  
The war began when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and power in Africa's biggest country.
  
In January 2007, a gunman was arrested after hijacking a Sudanese passenger jet and diverting it to Ndjamena, the capital of neighbouring Chad.
  
The Air West Boeing 737 was flying 103 people from Khartoum to Darfur. A Chadian government minister said the hijacker was seeking asylum in Britain.