South Sudanese soldier to face court martial for UN peacekeeper's shooting

Unmiss soldiers in South Sudan attend a meeting during their deployment. Picture: Reuters

Unmiss soldiers in South Sudan attend a meeting during their deployment. Picture: Reuters

Published Sep 20, 2018

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Johannesburg – A South Sudan soldier who shot and wounded a UN peacekeeper over the weekend is to be court-martialled. The wounded peacekeeper is recovering in a hospital in the capital Juba.

David Shearer, head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), told a press conference in Juba on Wednesday that the peacekeeper, a Nepalese national, had been travelling with a convoy to collect water when the shooting occurred.

The country’s authorities told UNMISS that the shooting was an isolated incident.

However, it comes on the heels of an Amnesty International report that opposition civilians have been brutally targeted by South Sudan government forces repeatedly with no action taken by the country’s authorities.

Shearer opined that the targeting of peacekeepers was a result of the insecurity still wracking the world’s newest country.

And despite a reduction in fighting compared with last year, there are still ceasefire violations, including flare-ups of fighting in southern Central Equatoria, which are being investigated by ceasefire monitors.

African News Agency/ANA

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