#other countries Five people were killed on Tuesday when a cargo plane carrying fuel for the World Food Program crashed near the South Sudanese capital Juba.
“Among the victims is a South Sudanese, two Sudanese and two Ukrainians,” David Subek, an official with the South Sudan Civil Aviation Authority, told AFP.
A cargo plane owned by a local operator was carrying 28 barrels of fuel for the World Food Program (WFP) to Maban, a district in the country’s northeast that hosts more than 100,000 refugees.
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According to the airport’s general manager, Kur Kuol, it hit a mango tree and caught fire. “The people on board have been burnt. The remains are in poor condition,” Kuol said.
The South Sudanese Red Cross confirmed that rescuers collected five bodies that were “burnt beyond recognition”.
South Sudan, a young independent nation that has been hit by a chronic economic and political crisis since 2011, lacks reliable transportation infrastructure. Aircraft accidents, which happen frequently, are usually attributed to overloading and bad weather.
>>> Read Also: South Sudan: 10 killed in plane crash in Jonglei state
President Salva Kiir on March 3 ordered the suspension of an airline after it crashed in the east of the country, killing all ten people, including two pilots. The South Sudan Supreme Airline Company plane crashed in Jonglei state shortly after takeoff from Pieri.
Another plane of local company South West Aviation crashed in August 2020, killing four passengers and three crew members.
In 2015, a Soviet-era Antonov plane crashed in Juba, killing 36 people. And in 2017, a plane off the runway rammed a fire truck before it caught fire, but 37 people miraculously survived the crash.