JUBA, April 28, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - A small plane crashed Monday in South Sudan near the capital Juba, killing all 13 passengers and the pilot, local officials said.

On top of instability, conflict and poverty, South Sudan also lacks reliable transport infrastructure with frequent plane crashes attributed to overloading and bad weather.

The plane was a Cessna that departed Juba International Airport at 0715 GMT and crashed about 20 kilometres from the capital with no survivors, the South Sudanese Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.

It said initial reports indicated the cause as "adverse weather conditions, particularly low visibility".

The victims included 12 South Sudanese and two Kenyan.

"All the bodies were charred beyond recognition," said a member of a UN rescue team sent to the scene, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Twenty people died in January 2025 in a plane crash in northern South Sudan.

In 2021, five people were killed when a cargo plane carrying fuel for the World Food Programme (WFP) crashed.

In 2015, the crash of a Soviet-era Antonov aircraft in Juba killed 36 people.

And in 2017, a plane that veered off a runway struck a fire truck before bursting into flames, but all 37 people on board miraculously escaped unharmed.