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The Sudanese government confirmed Monday that Vice President John Garang was killed when a Ugandan presidential plane he was travelling in crashed into a mountain range in southern Sudan.
'It has now been confirmed that the plane crashed after it hit a mountain range in southern Sudan because of poor visibility and this resulted in the death of Dr John Garang DeMabior, six of his colleagues and seven other crew embers of the Ugandan presidential plane,' said a statement released by the office of Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir.
Ugandan officials said Garang and the others were flying in one of President Yoweri Museveni's personal helicopters, but the Sudanese statement said it was a plane. The conflict couldn't be immediately reconciled.
The bodies of Garang, six colleagues and seven crew members were found early Monday in rugged mountains running along the Sudanese-Ugandan border.
The Sudanese military said the aircraft left the Ugandan capital of Kampala for southern Sudan on Saturday at about 6:30 pm (0900 IST). Contact was lost with about an hour later, Sudanese information minister Abdel-Basit Sabdarat said on Sunday.
Ugandan, Sudanese and Kenyan troops have been hunting for the helicopter since early Sunday, after it failed to reach its destination in southern Sudan on Saturday.
His helicopter had attempted to land in the New Kush region of southern Sudan but aborted the landing because of bad weather and headed back south, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said in a statement early Monday.
The helicopter was last heard near Pirre, a mountainous region near the Kenyan and Sudanese borders on the edge of a large national park, he said.
'The [Sudanese] president has appealed to the people to be calm, expressing that although the loss is great but the peace process will continue because peace has now become the property of the Sudanese people and peace-loving people around the world,' the Sudanese statement said.
'We reaffirm the peace process will continue until we reach the objectives set and his [Garang's] departure will reinforce and give us more strength,' said the statement.