“There have been many air accidents in this country” President Salva Kiir

August 23, 2020(Nyamilepedia) — Responding to a tragic plane crash in the national capital, Juba, president Salva Kiir said he has received the news “with profound sorrow” but he is not surprised.

“I have learned with profound sorrow that a cargo plane traveling to Aweil with the planned stop in Wau crashed this morning shortly after taking off from Juba International Airport” reads part of a statement signed by President Salva Kiir.

Mr. President confirmed that the cargo plane was carrying nine people including the pilot but only one person survived.

“The plane was carrying a total of nine people, including its crew members. There were six South Sudanese, one Ukranian and two Tajiks. Of this numbers, only one South Sudanese survived the impact of the crash and the other eight people were deceased” President Salva Kiir said.

While death in South Sudan is very frequent and mostly from war and other guns related violence, president Kiir is not surprised that air crash are also frequent in South Sudan.

“There have been too many air accidents in this country and it cannot be business as usual when it comes to the issue of safety of air travellers because lives are at stake” President Kiir said.

While promising investigation on top of numerous death related investigations that are ongoing in the country, Kiir instructed the Ministry of Transport along with the Aviation Authorities in the country “to adhere to international standards on the operations of aircrafts when assessing airworthy of planes destined to operate in South Sudan”

Within this week, another airplane crashed in New Pangak of Jonglei State.

According to critics South Sudan allows outdated old aircrafts to operate in the country and this is believe to have contributed to the numerous air accidents that have been witnessed in the country since it became independent 9 years ago.

South Sudan is facing numerous challenges. In addition to air accidents, the roads are in very poor conditions which cause many road accidents or make it nearly impossible to travel from point A to point B.

The South Sudanese politicians, who are mostly military generals, have been glued on a civil war for the last seven years leaving very little hopes for development and while the shaky peace agreement that was signed two years ago seems to have silenced the guns, the lack of development and shuttering economy can be felt almost anywhere in the country.

With almost half of the country’s population lockdown in the refugee and IDPs camps, the other half of the populations is either battling inter-tribal conflicts and natural disasters like flood or it is juggling in the cities and main towns trying to survive.