South Sudanese Journalist Shot and Wounded in Wau State

February 27, 2016 (WAU) - A South Sudanese journalist working as a technician at Wau Radio station was Friday night shot and wounded by an unknown gunman.

Narrating his ordeal, Alfonse Ernest Makuei said a South Sudanese army (SPLA) soldier attacked him as he returned home from a club at about 7:00pm.

“I was coming from the club to my house and one of my neighbours was ahead of me. As she branched aside towards her house, person who shot me called me saying stop and I thought he was lost and needed help,” Makuei told Sudan Tribune Saturday.

Till now, it remains unclear why the soldier shot the radio technician, and neither army officials nor state authorities could comment on the matter.

The wounded journalist is reportedly undergoing treatment in Wau town.

Last year, five journalists were killed when unidentified gunmen ambushed an official convoy in South Sudan’s Western Bahr al Ghazal state, according to local journalists and news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the attack and called on authorities to apprehend the perpetrators and hold them accountable.

Press freedom in South Sudan has deteriorated since the country gained its independence in 2011, according to sources who spoke to CPJ in late 2014. Government security forces raided and briefly shut down numerous media outlets in Juba in 2014, and local journalists told CPJ they feared covering sensitive topics and censored themselves.

(ST)