South Sudan: Salva Kiir recovers his passport 30 years after his plane crashes in Kenya

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir survived a plane crash and other passengers when he was still a pro-independence rebel in South Sudan. Here in Juba, February 3, 2023. © Gregorio Borgia / AP

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Thirty years later, the president of South Sudan has recovered his passport lost when his plane crashed in Kenya. In 1993, Salva Kiir was a general in the SPLA rebel movement fighting for Khartoum's independence. The plane, which departed from Nairobi, crashed in northwestern Kenya and villagers rescued the future head of state and other passengers. A delegation from Juba was on site on Sunday, April 2 to collect the belongings found, thank the families and announce the project of a medical center on site.

Advertising

Read more

« 

We have helped save lives. But at the time we didn't know we had the future of South Sudan in our hands": this is the reaction of Evelyne Lunge, from Sawmill, whose inhabitants had rescued Salva Kiir in 1993.

On Sunday, April 2, a delegation of fifteen South Sudanese officials, including ministers and diplomats, returned to the village where the head of state almost lost his life 30 years earlier. Bol Wek was his bodyguard and recounted the engine failure, the plane falling, the forced landing and the aircraft hitting a tree. He and Salva Kiir were wounded and were able to extricate themselves from the cabin.

Local residents then rushed in. "We heard a loud explosion. A piece of wing landed on a tree and a cloud of dust emerged. Everyone came to help," said Evelyne Lunge.

A British passenger died. Salva Kiir, his bodyguard, the pilot and two Norwegian nurses were taken to a health centre 40 kilometres from the area. "It is because of your kindness that South Sudanese have a country today," Bol Wek told villagers who returned Kiir's passport, the bracelets he was wearing and pieces of the wreckage.

The South Sudanese have announced plans to build a trauma medical centre inside the hospital that treated Salva Kiir and turn the crash site into a tourist attraction.

► Read also: In South Sudan, a peace that is desired

Newsletter Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

Read on on the same topics:

• South Sudan
• Kenya
• Salva Kiir