LETTER FROM JUBA
“Here in South Sudan, planes are dropping like flies! », exclaimed a South Sudanese internet user following the crash of a device chartered by the Ministry of National Education to deliver exam papers, in Agok, in the Abyei area, bordering Sudan, on February 8 . Indeed, even if no casualties are to be deplored, no less than four plane crashes, taking off and landing, were recorded in South Sudan last month.
In this country which became independent in 2011 following decades of war, and which is struggling to get out of a new conflict that started in 2013, entire regions are only accessible by air, due to a lack of roads, especially during the rainy season. But the lack of communication equipment and qualified personnel in the airports as well as the poor infrastructure lead to repeated accidents. From “flaws”according to Subek David Dada, the head of the South Sudan Civil Aviation Authority (SSCAA), which his services are trying to fill with the collaboration – and under pressure – of international partners.
According to the specialized site Aviation-safety.net, in the ten years of its existence, South Sudan has experienced at least 40 plane crashes. From the crash of an Antonov-type aircraft a few minutes following takeoff from Juba airport in 2015 (40 dead) to that of another Antonov in similar conditions in November 2021 (5 dead), including the crash of a Let L-410 Turbolet near Yirol in 2018 (21 fatalities), failures have multiplied over the years, claiming 87 victims.
“Some Antonov-type aircraft are 40, 50, 60 years old and should no longer fly! Micah Sawaka Mukhtar, Director of Security, South Sudan Civil Aviation Authority
At the end of 2021, a year marked by two fatal crashes, the European Commission threatened to blacklist South Sudan, and demanded an explanation from the authorities regarding, among other things, a suspicion of falsification of registration certificates crashed devices. Under pressure, the SSCAA announced the grounding of all Antonov-type aircraft and accelerated the revision of documents for these often obsolete and poorly maintained Soviet-era craft. It is moreover an Antonov belonging to the army – not subject to the measures taken by civil aviation – which crashed in Agok on February 8 when it had been chartered by the Ministry of Education.
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