At least 18 people, four of them children, are dead after a military plane crashed in western Sudan on Thursday, according to reports.

The Antonov 12 aircraft crashed five minutes after taking off from an airport in El Geneina, the state capital of Sudan’s West Darfur province, BBC reports.

An army spokesman told AFP that seven crew members, three judges, and eight civilians – including four children – were among the victims.

The plane had been delivering aid to areas beset by deadly tribal clashes between Arabs and non-Arabs in recent days. Additional military troops have been sent to El Geneina to help quell the violence, according to Reuters.

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Nearly 50 people have been killed and more than 240 wounded in the violence, according to the Sudanese Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian organization operating in the country.

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The cause of the crash is under investigation.