By Mary Poni
Popular South Sudanese activist is calling on South Sudan’s leadership and the Turkish Embassy to urgently work out modalities for adding Turkish and other Airlines of other countries with embassies in the country in to their Airline drop list.
The Executive Director for Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), Edmund Yakani made this call after an upsetting encounter with the Turkish Airline during check-in for the airline in the US, Washington DC, IAD Dulles International airport to Istanbul over the weekend.
“I was stressed due to hardship in checking in. I noticed that South Sudan is not in the countries drop-list after leaving the hotel for airport to Istanbul. Connecting direct to South Sudan was much harder than I thought,” he said while speaking to the No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper.
“Omitting a country in which you have an embassy from your drop-list demonstrates a sense of neglect and discrimination whether it was an intended act by the Turkish airlines or not,” he continued.
Yakani believed that exhibiting a sense of recognition for the Republic of South Sudan in all countries drop-list like any other country globally is very important.
Edmund cited that many South Sudanese missed online services because assessing such services requires the use of online country drop-list.
“I am therefore urging the leadership of Turkish airline and the star alliance including the leadership of the country to address this challenge,” he reiterated.
“The ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation have to take serious steps and issue ministerial directives to all international airlines across the global to add S. Sudan to their firms,” he further advised.
He insists that all embassies and international institutions operating in the country should be considerate of South Sudan as an important partner.
Edmund Yakani was in Washington DC for the US-Africa summit which was concluded last Friday.
On 1st of June 2022, Turkish Airlines had launched its Juba-Istanbul direct flights.
The flights operate three times a week – every Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays by a Boeing 737-900 Max aircraft.
Juba became the 62nd African destination of the Turkish national flag carrier airline and South Sudan becomes the 129th route in the airline’s network.