4 Days Conflict Claimed Two Journalists
Already hostile environment to journalists has again claimed the lives of two innocent lives of journalists while serving their country in the four days useless and “isolated” conflict between the two main conflicting parties of the country.
The death of Kamula Duro cameraman who worked in the office of the president was confirmed by presidential Press Secretary Ateny Wek on his Facebook page.
A colleague of the late photographer said to a source he was shot near UN house in Jebel when he went to collect his wife from the UN camp. He was initially reported to have been shot on his hands and legs but he later died.
John Gatluak Manguet Nhial, a journalist and radio manager, was killed in Juba on Monday, dealing with another devastating blow to the country’s already embattled press, sources confirm.
Jennifer Cobb, a spokeswoman for Internews, confirmed to the Associated Press that Gatluak was killed on Monday at the compound of the upscale Terrain Hotel, where he had gone for safety after he was briefly arrested Friday night.
The Rev. John Chuol, a representative of Gatluak’s family, said the 32-year-old journalist was targeted because he is a member of the Nuer tribe.
“We received a phone call from one of John’s colleagues… saying they were attacked in their workplace and they were asked to go out and let people from other tribes go. When they saw that John was a Nuer they shot him dead
immediately,” Chuol told rold a source.
Some of the heaviest clashes in the past week in Juba took place near the Terrain Hotel as government troops attempted to oust the armed opposition from one of their bases. By Monday afternoon, the opposition was in
retreat. Government soldiers stormed the Terrain Hotel as they were returning to town.
A media official who did not want to be named said that there was no other person of Nuer ethnicity in the hotel compound, and no one else was killed, though one hotel employee was shot in the leg.
Gatluak had distinctive Nuer facial scars on his forehead, making his ethnicity easily identifiable. A photo of his body reportedly shows that he was shot in the face and lying on his back, his arms outstretched. “When I look at the photo, it looks like he raised his hands up as someone who is surrendering,” said the source.
Media officials described the killing of Gatluak as a devastating loss. “He was a heroic reporter and a leader, widely loved and embraced in his community,” said Nigel Ballard, Internews Director of Communty Radio.
Gatluak had worked at Internews as a reporter and as the station coordinator at Naath FM in Leer, before helping to set up a national organization, The Radio Community, which Internews intended as the vehicle for taking over the management of several community radios that it had hitherto operated itself.
“It’s hard to believe this,” said Alfred Taban. “God save us from all that is happening.”
Both innocent journalists left behind familes.
South sudan is one of the worst sites for journalists protection following the tragic death of over seven journalists in 2015 with motives confirmed or not confirmed.