Amidst ongoing chaos in South Sudan, both Kenya and Rwanda have suspended their national carrier flights to and from South Sudan’s capital, Juba. Kenya Airways was the first to halt its services to Juba, making the announcement on Saturday July 9 via Twitter.
“We wish to advise our guests that we have suspended flights to Juba, South Sudan due to uncertain security situation,” they tweeted.
RwandAir followed suit yesterday, also announcing on social media that flights to and from Juba have been cancelled pending further notice. “Due to the prevailing security situation in Juba (South Sudan), our flights to and from Juba have been cancelled until further notice.”
On Thursday, a deadly clash erupted between rival factions in the government. While President Salva Kiir and his Vice, Riek Machar, were in a security meeting on Friday to discuss the tragedy that left some of Kiir’s soldiers dead the day before, an even bigger clash involving the use of artilleries and tanks ensued between the soldiers in Kiir and Machar’s camp.
As of today, the senseless fighting has resulted in the death of over 300 people, soldiers, civilians and peacekeepers. This has raised fears and questions of yet another civil war, which will be quite a shame considering the fact that a peace deal was signed by the two major factions in the ruling government only a year ago, and it has just been five years since South Sudan gained its independence.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, has called on Kiir and Machar to put an end to the hostilities between their factions by any means necessary, saying that he was shocked and appalled by the violence, which is capable of reversing the progress made in the peace deal.
Ventures Africa.
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