South Sudan Finally Closes Airport, Borders over Coronavirus

The government of South Sudan on Tuesday night closed business at Juba International Airport for passenger flight and also locked all its to stop the spread of Coronavirus in the country.

The fragile nation has registered zero Coronavirus case though all her neighbors including Uganda, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan have increasing cases of the heavily contagious disease.

President Salva Kiir and his vice Dr. Riek Machar on Tuesday formed a high level taskforce committee headed by them to combat the spread of the disease into the country already burdened by the brunt of long term civil war.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, the Deputy Chairperson of the high level Task-force committee Dr. Machar said the committee resolved to close the airport.

“The High-Level Taskforce Committee recommended and endorsed ceasing the operations of International flights destined to and from Juba International Airport by midnight Tuesday 24th march 2020, to curb the spread of corona virus from the foreign infected countries,” said a statement from presidency.

The task-force Committee instructed the law enforcement agencies, all the national security sectors to take immediate actions on the senior government officials and members of the Public that are not complying with the Presidential orders contained in the President’s statement on COVID-19.

“The High-Level Task-force committee urges the public not to panic over the closure of the borders (since) the cargo trucks and fuel tankers shall continue to flow in and out of the country,” added the statement.

Dr. Machar added that the committee also resolves to allocate USD 3 million to cater for the needs of South Sudanese students studying in the countries affected by the corona virus disease.