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Africa Horn | |
Sudan plane crashes, minister among 26 dead | |
2008-05-03 | |
JUBA, Sudan - Southern Sudan's minister of defence and another government official were killed on Friday in a plane crash, southern government officials said. Dominic Dim, the south's defence minister and minister of SPLA affairs, and Justin Yak, a presidential adviser for local government affairs, were on the plane that crashed near the southern town of Rumbek, the officials said.
The former southern rebel SPLM signed a 2005 accord with the northern National Congress Party (NCP), ending Africa's longest civil war. The SPLA is the armed wing of the SPLM. The crash comes a day after southern army officials said Sudan's northern and southern forces had agreed to withdraw from an oil-rich border flashpoint where clashes in the last month have killed dozens. The clashes in Unity state, near one of Sudan's largest oil fields, could disrupt the north-south peace deal that ended the war, shared wealth and power, and created separate northern and southern armies. The UN said the plane was a Beechcraft 1900 operated by South Sudan Air Connection travelling from Wau to Juba with 21 passengers on board. The United Nations said it had sent a helicopter to the crash site. Nineteen military officials were also killed in the crash, local daily Sudan Tribune reported on its website. Dim, who was a major general in the army, was appointed to his post last July in a cabinet reshuffle. Former Southern rebel leader John Garang was killed in a helicopter crash three years ago. His widow has called his death an assassination, despite an official probe that blamed pilot error. | |
Posted by:Steve White |