Southern Sudan Air Connection aircraft has crashed today in Southern Sudan, killing over a dozen people, including the area's defence minister.

There are conflicting reports on how many people were on board and how many died in the Bahr Gazal crash, but at least twenty people were on board. Some sources suggest nineteen fatalities and two survivors, and others say there were 26 deaths and no survivors; it should be noted that if either of these were correct then there were more than twenty on board. Lieutenant General Dominic Dim Deng, the area's defence minister, is confirmed to be dead.

"The plane had been rented from a charter company and was carrying a delegation of leaders from the (former rebel) Sudan People's Liberation Movement from Wau to the capital Juba," said Luka Mariak, spokesman for the Souther Sudan president Salva Kiir. This makes the journey around 450 kilometres (290 miles), with the plane crashing in a flat region 375 kilometres (around 220 miles) from Juba. It is reported it subsequently caught fire.

The United Nationssaid that the United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) had dispatched a helicopter to assist the emergency response effort.

Justin Yak and his wife are also confirmed to be dead. Yak was the minister for cabinet affairs until a 2007 reshuffle left him removed from office. Bodies were flown into Juba Airport were relatives waited for hours for news. UNMIS is expected to fly the bodies on to their nearby airfield, to which there is no public access.

The disaster is thought to be an accident caused by mechanical trouble. The pilot had contacted Air Traffic Control (ATC) to report engine problems and requested permission to conduct an emergency landing at nearby Rumbek. ATC lost contact minutes later.

Recent attacks on trucks contracted by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to transport food to Darfur and Southern Sudan have slowed down deliveries and affected the UN agency's ability to support returnees, the agency warned.

"Because of truck hijackings, we are moving about half the amount of food that we should be moving into Darfur to pre-position ahead of the rainy season," Peter Smerdon, WFP spokesman in Nairobi, told IRIN. "If this continues in the South we might start having the same problem."

In the latest incident, Hamid Dafaalla, a 47-year-old driver of a WFP-contracted truck, and his assistant were killed in Southern Sudan as they returned from delivering food to Rumbek.

His death brought to five the number of people killed in attacks on WFP humanitarian transporters in Sudan in less than three weeks.

"We are shocked and saddened by this heartless killing," Ebenezer Tagoe, WFP Sudan deputy director, said in a statement. "Attacks against vehicles delivering humanitarian assistance are completely unacceptable."

The attack on Dafaalla, WFP said, occurred 6km from Mayom town in Unity State. The spot is near where two WFP-contracted drivers were stabbed to death on 22 March. Two days later, another WFP-contracted driver was shot dead and his assistant injured while delivering food to Nyala in South Darfur.

"The continued insecurity on the roads in areas where we operate presents not only a serious threat to the drivers, but also to vulnerable people who depend on this food for their survival," Tagoe added.

According to the office of the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, nearly 90 people working with humanitarian operations in Darfur have been abducted, mostly during hijacking incidents, since the beginning of 2008.

This is in addition to killings in the south where about two million people have returned since a peace accord ended more than two decades of conflict in 2005, and rely on aid for survival.

"If security on the roads to Darfur does not improve, WFP risks having to reduce rations in some areas where the flow of deliveries cannot be maintained," Smerdon added.

The Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir has issued a full pardon to British school teacher Gillian Gibbons who was jailed for 15 days after allowing children in her class to name a teddy bear "Muhammad".

The decision came after a meeting with two members of a British Muslim group, Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi who travelled to the Sudan after her imprisonment around a week ago. The imprisonment of the 54 year-old teacher from Liverpool caused international outcry with Muslims in Sudan protesting for her death, and British Muslims protesting for her release.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was "delighted and relieved" at the decision and Mrs Gibbons said "I am sorry if I caused any distress" in a released statement. Mrs Gibbons is expected to be released into the custody of the British embassy in the Sudan.

 

 

Unidentified assailants have shot and killed three lorry drivers contracted by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in the war-scarred western Sudanese region of Darfur, the organisation said.

Two of the men, who were killed on 16 October, worked for the Abbarci trucking company, WFP said.

"WFP is deeply saddened and shocked by the killings of these brave men, who knew the dangers they were facing but continued to work tirelessly to alleviate suffering and bring food to the hungry in Darfur,” said Kenro Oshidari, WFP Sudan representative.

Two of the drivers were murdered in South Darfur on the road between the town of Ed Daien and the city of El Obeid. The men were returning to El Obeid after delivering supplies. The third man, also an employee of Abbarci, was killed on 12 October in South Darfur on the road between the state capital Nyala and the city of El Fasher, capital of North Darfur.

Earlier in October aid workers warned that an upsurge in violence in Darfur was further restricting the ability of the few humanitarian workers left to reach thousands of vulnerable civilians.