The owner of dormant South Sudan Supreme Airlines (Juba) has threatened to take the South Sudan government to the International Criminal Court in The Hague over an alleged unpaid debt of USD1.05 billion, reports the Tanzania Times newspaper.
Ayii Duang Ayii claims the now-inactive airline provided transport and logistics services to the South Sudanese government over several years without being paid. Additionally, he claimed, a subsidiary called South Supreme Foods had supplied subsidised food commodities and fuel products to some government institutions in Juba.
South Sudan Supreme Airlines, formerly South Supreme Airlines, began operations in 2013 as Feeder Airlines. Based at Juba, it operated throughout South Sudan deploying a B737-300 and a CRJ100 wet-leased from Gambia's Jupiter Airlines (Banjul), a F50, and a Let 410.
The airline faced repeated operational and safety issues. It suspended operations in 2015 due to economic challenges but later resumed service.
In 2021, a fatal Let 410 crash prompted the airline's government-ordered suspension. Ayii was arrested in 2023 for allegedly defaulting on compensation payments to families of victims of the crash, according to a report at the time by Radio Tamazuj, a Netherlands-based independent broadcaster focused on South Sudan. A previous crash in 2017 had destroyed an An-26 at Wau.
