South Sudan defence minister killed in air crash
by Badru Mulumba
Fri May 2, 2:29 PM ET
JUBA, Sudan (AFP) - South Sudan’s defence minister was killed on Friday in a plane crash along with at least 22 other people, most of them senior members of the southern former rebel leadership. Lieutenant General Dominic Dim Deng’s plane came down 375 kilometres (around 220 miles) from the southern capital Juba, killing everyone on board, including many army officers.
“There were 21 passengers besides the pilots,” southern president Salva Kiir told journalists in Juba.
He said there were probably two crew on board but that “the full list of the passengers is not yet obtained. We have confirmed, however, that Lieutenant General Dominic Dim was among the passengers,” along with his wife. Kiir’s spokesman Luka Mariak told AFP earlier that the plane came down “in a flat, savannah-like region.”
Kiir said that the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), which sent a helicopter to the scene of the crash, confirmed that all on board were killed. “With this tragedy, I declare public mourning all over southern Sudan for three days,” Kiir said.
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