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Air crash kills Sudanese minister | Air crash kills Sudanese minister |
(about 3 hours later) | |
South Sudan's defence minister has been killed along with at least 21 other people in a plane crash in the south. | |
Dominic Dim Deng was returning with a military delegation to the regional capital, Juba, from a political conference in the town of Wau. | |
A presidential adviser was among the passengers and crew members killed. | |
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir said engine trouble had caused the crash, about 400km (250 miles) west of Juba. He declared three days of mourning. | |
The BBC's Amber Henshaw in Sudan says the incident will bring back memories of the death of South Sudan's first leader, John Garang, who was killed in a helicopter crash three years ago. | |
His widow called his death an assassination, despite an official probe that blamed pilot error. | |
'Shock' | |
Philip Yona Jambi, South Sudan's rural development minister, said that the pilot asked permission to make a crash landing in Rumbek after reporting engine trouble. | |
"Unfortunately they couldn't make it to Rumbek - the plane just blew up and all passengers died," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa. | |
He said passengers on board included Mr Deng and his wife, senior presidential adviser Justin Yak and his wife, and other senior military officials. | |
Our correspondent says officials have arrived at the site of the crash and the United Nations has also sent a helicopter to the scene. | |
Mr Kiir, who is also Sudan's vice-president, told journalists in Juba that it was a very sad day for South Sudan. | |
He said that the control tower in Rumbek had lost all contact with the plane not long after the pilot had requested permission to land. | |
Mr Jambi said that the news had shocked many southern Sudanese. | |
"People are very worried and those who have heard about it will suspect foul play because John Garang died in a crash and they still don't believe the results of the investigation," he said. | |
Mr Garang died not long after the region signed the 2005 peace deal which ended decades of war with Khartoum. |