South Sudan denies death of presidential security personnel in plan crash
By Ngor Arol Garang
December 22, 2009 (KHARTOUM) –The government of Southern Sudan today denied the death of any Presidential security personnel in a plane crash blaming media for exaggeration and called for calm in the area.
Speaking from Juba, an official from presidential security personnel office, who declined to be named, said on Saturday December 19, 2009 a plane carrying GOSS presidential security personnel lost control as it was trying to land at Tonj air field killing an innocent woman on the ground at the peripheral of the strip.
“No one on the ground or among the passengers was injured,” he adds.
Sudanese media including the official TV have reported that 48 people died when their aircraft crash-landed at Tonj Airport, Warrap State, southern Sudan. The reports said all the victims were members of the advanced team of security of First Vice-President and President of Government of South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit who planned to visit the state.
“Whenever I heard plane crash, it reminds me of the tragic crash which robbed South Sudan of her charismatic and visionary leader Dr. John Garang on Saturday July 30th in 2005, said Alier Bior, a Southern Student at Juba University campus in Khartoum.
It also reminds me of the similar incident in which first South Sudan SPLA affairs minister, General Dominic Diim with his wife Josephine along GOSS presidential Advisor on Decentralization, Dr. Justin Yac Arop, among other passengers and crew members was killed, he adds.
Paul Mayom Akech, minister of information and broadcasting service in the government of Southern Sudan also dismissed the incident involving death of any member of presidential security personnel but regretted the killing of an innocent woman.
He said “the crash did not kill anybody but it was unfortunate that an innocent resident of the area could not escape the crash at the peripheries of the air strip.”
The minister said a joint committee from southern Sudan government and civil aviation will probe the cause of the incident.
(ST)