SUDAN:Southern Sudan's minister of defence and a presidential adviser were among at least 23 people killed yesterday in a plane crash blamed on engine failure, officials said.
Dominic Dim, the south's defence minister, and Justin Yak, a presidential adviser for local government affairs, were on the aircraft that crashed near the southern town of Rumbek, government officials said.
"Twenty-one passengers were killed and either two or three crew members," first southern vice-president Salva Kiir told a news conference. "Two engines failed and there was nothing the pilot could do." Mr Yak's wife was also among the dead, a southern government official said.
The former southern rebel group SPLM signed a 2005 accord with the northern National Congress Party, ending Africa's longest civil war. Mr Dim also had ministerial responsibility for the SPLA, which is the armed wing of the SPLM.
South Sudan information minister Gabriel Changson Chang said the site had been cordoned off and the government would investigate the crash.
The UN said the aircraft was a Beechcraft 1900 travelling from Wau to Juba with 21 passengers on board. The UN said it had sent a helicopter to the crash site.
Nineteen of the dead were military officials, local daily Sudan Tribune reported on its website.
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 investigation that blamed pilot error.