GUNFIRE BROKE OUT yesterday in the South Sudanese capital as Government forces fought a skirmish with people aligned to a recently sacked intelligence chief.
The United Nations has branded it an attempted arrest of a rival to the sitting president.
Akol Koor had been under house arrest since his firing in October, according to local media reports, but remained a powerful figure after running the National Security Services since independence in 2011.
Shots rang out in the evening in Juba, the capital of the country that has suffered persistent political infighting and ethnic violence since breaking away from Sudan 12 years ago.
On a visit to the country last week The Journal observed immense poverty and signs of political infighting in Juba as the Government has stalled elections.
Reports from the scene of yesterday’s incident said the fighting lasted about an hour.
A military source supposedly involved in the operation told the Sudan Post newspaper that Koor had been arrested after intense fighting that reportedly left dozens of his soldiers dead or wounded.
In an alert to its staff on the ground, the UN reported a shooting linked to the former head of intelligence’s detention, advising people to take cover. Yet it was unclear whether Koor had, in fact, been arrested.
Confirming the shootout, military spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said it involved “our own security forces that had been deployed there to provide extra security”.
“We do not know what had happened, and that misunderstanding degenerated in gunfire,” Koang said, adding that two servicemen were shot and wounded before the situation was contained.
Images circulating on social media and published by local news outlets showed traffic at a standstill near the former intelligence chief’s residence, with drivers having abandoned their vehicles in the wake of the gunfire.
In October, South Sudan President Salva Kiir, dismissed the powerful intelligence services head without giving a reason.
The move came two weeks after the government again postponed by two years the first elections in the nation’s history.
South Sudan is one of the poorest countries on the planet despite large oil reserves and ranks 177 out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index.
Separately the Government in South Sudan rejected claims by a US-based watchdog that President Salva Kiir’s family had built up a vast corporate empire in one of the world’s poorest countries.
The Sentry group said it had mapped 126 Kiir family companies that span a range of industries “central” to the South Sudanese economy including mining, petroleum, banking, trade, aviation, private security and logistics.
“Given the scale and scope of this network, transparency is crucial to identifying whether these companies are being used for illicit means, especially given South Sudan’s track record of corruption,” it said in a report this week titled “Kiirdom”.
“Kiir family-linked companies have repeatedly been identified in lists of companies involved in procurement scandals that have resulted in the loss of billions of dollars of public funds that should have been used to meet the basic needs of the South Sudanese people.”
Kiir’s office denounced The Sentry’s claims as “baseless and malicious” and said South Sudan’s constitution did not bar any citizen, including his relatives, from engaging in legitimate business.
“The allegations, presented as investigative findings, are nothing more than a deliberate witch-hunt designed to undermine the First Family and destabilise the nation’s unity,” it said in a statement.
The Sentry posted a huge trove of data on its platform, saying 23 members of Kiir’s family had been shareholders of companies, including his wife Mary Ayen Mayardit and at least nine children and grandchildren, as well as his brother-in-law and his family.
But it said Kiir’s name did not appear on any corporate documents it had identified.
South Sudan’s transitional constitution, drawn up in 2011 after it gained independence from Sudan, says the president, ministers and other state officials must not engage in commercial business during their term in office.
The Sentry, co-founded by Hollywood star George Clooney, investigates corruption, money laundering and profiteering from conflict.
With reporting from Niall O’Connor
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