South Sudan to bury crash victims

Juba -News24

The bodies of south Sudan Defence Minister Dominic Dim Deng and five others killed in a plane crash arrived in Juba on Saturday, where hundreds of weeping relatives and top officials had been waiting.

South Sudan Defence Minister Dominic Dim Deng's plane went down on Friday, 375 kilometres from Juba, killing everyone on board, including many army officers.

South Sudan's president and the country's first vice president, Salva Kiir, was among those waiting at the airport, where the defence minister's coffin was given a military salute.

The plane that crashed had been rented from a charter company and was carrying a delegation of leaders of the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement from Wau to the capital Juba, 450 kilometres to the southeast.

The bodies accompanying that of Deng on UN helicopters were those of his wife and member of the Southern Sudan Employee Justice Chamber Josephine Jenaro Aken, Presidential Advisor Justin Yac and his wife and two Kenyan pilots, officials said.

Other bodies were being taken to their ancestral homes, officials said.

Rescue teams were still searching the scene of the plane crash for two missing bodies, an official said.

"The wreckage was bad. It takes time to open it up completely," Lakes State Governor Daniel Awet said.

He said the first signal from the pilot was sent when the plane was some 27 kilometres out of Rumbek, the provincial capital of Lakes State, north of Juba, and the second signal came when the plane was 43 kilometres away.

"This incident confirms no evil intent behind the accident," South Sudan Army Chief of Staff Deng Oyay said. "But more investigations would be carried out. As we learned from the communication from the pilot this tragedy is a result of mechanical conditions."

Earlier on Saturday, Sudanese Foreign Minister Deng Alor told AFP that Kiir would skip a donors? conference in Oslo next week to attend the funerals of his defence minister and 22 others.

Kiir had been due to attend a May 6-7 conference aimed at generating pledges of support for the further reconstruction and development of southern Sudan, Alor said, adding that the date and location of the funerals has not been set.

"It could be in Juba (the capital of south Sudan) or in Warab" to the north, Alor said.

One SPLM leader, Hamid Ghallab, told reporters on Saturday that the SPLM's general congress will proceed as scheduled on May 10 in Juba, allowing for the election of a successor to the defence minister.

An official three-day mourning period for the victims of the crash began on Saturday in south Sudan, officials said.