Plane crash in South Sudan kills at least 20 people

At least 20 people have been killed in a plane crash in the north of South Sudan, Unity state’s minister for information said.

The aircraft came down near the oil fields in Unity state at about 10:30am (08:30 GMT) shortly after taking off for the capital, Juba, on Wednesday.

“The plane crashed 500 metres from the airport… 21 people were on board. As for now, there’s only one survivor,” Gatwech Bipal Both told AFP news agency.

All of the passengers – 16 South Sudanese, two Chinese nationals and 1 Indian – are employees of he Greater Pioneer Operating Company (GPOC).

Bipal added that the aircraft was on a routine mission to the area.

Earlier, the United Nations’s Radio Miraya reported that the pilot and co-pilot were among those killed.

Pictures shared on social media showed the crumpled aircraft upside down in a field, debris spread across the area.

Overloading of planes is common in South Sudan, and was believed to have contributed to the 2015 crash of an Antonov plane in Juba that killed 36 people.

In 2021 five people were killed after a cargo plane carrying fuel for the UN’s World Food Programme crashed near Juba.