South Sudan became the world’s newest country in July 2011, and its systems still show the strain of that youth. Civil war broke out barely two years after independence and ran until a fragile ceasefire in September 2018; armed conflict continues in parts of the country today. For a family facing a death here, the practical realities are stark: an underdeveloped registration system, almost no mortuary capacity outside the capital, and real limits on where the process can even reach.
What a case actually needs
The Office of the Registrar General handles death registration, a system that’s only existed since 2011 and whose capacity, understandably, is still limited. The attending physician certifies natural deaths; for anything non-natural, the South Sudan National Police Service has to attend and investigate first, and its capacity outside Juba is very thin. The Ministry of Health issues the export permit, and a licensed funeral director prepares and embalms the body, but embalming facilities genuinely only exist in Juba.
Getting the body to the capital
For a death anywhere outside Juba, this is the first and often hardest step. Depending on where the death occurred and what the current security situation allows, this can mean air charter, and there’s no fixed schedule that can be relied on.
Where the process cannot reach
FCDO advises against all travel to Unity State, home to the oil fields, Upper Nile State, Western Equatoria, and Central Equatoria outside Juba itself. Civilian recovery from these areas is not achievable through ordinary means, and any specific case originating there needs to go through the British Embassy Juba to establish what, if anything, might be possible.
Getting home from Juba
Juba International Airport offers reasonably solid connections for a regional capital: Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Ababa as the primary UK-bound route, Kenya Airways via Nairobi, or EgyptAir via Cairo, both connecting on to London.
Call the FCDO Emergency Travel Line, 020 7008 5000, first. The British Embassy Juba, +211 912 179 100, is a resident post and the right point of contact for anything reachable within the capital.
Read how repatriation works when there’s a criminal case abroad, or see repatriation from South Sudan to the UK for the full country breakdown.
Contact Repatriate Service on +44 7703 577246 at any hour, or use the enquiry form below.