17 wounded as security forces disperse Jonglei protest

JUBA – At least seventeen (17) people have been wounded after security forces in South Sudan’s restive Jonglei state used force to disperse a protest by civil servants who were angered by a salary row with the state government, a medic has said.

This comes after the civil servant overran the state government secretariat forcing security forces to evacuate Governor Denay Jok Chagor as protesters said they must see him ‘personally’.

Speaking to Sudans Post from Bor, a medic at the Bor main hospital said at least seventeen (17) people have been injured by the security forces and four of them were in a very critical situation.

“As I speak to you, I haven’t gone home, seventeen people have been wounded during the protest after the security forces attempted to disperse the process by force and this has led to the wounding of the protesters,” the medic said on condition of anonymity.

“Ten of them have been released and have returned home because their injuries are slight, but four of the remaining seven are still here in the hospital and are in very bad and critical conditions,” the medic added.

Earlier in the day, Jonglei state minister of information, Veronica William Deng, said the governor has been evacuated from his office because some pockets of the protesters are demanding to see the governor personally.

“They are demanding to see him personally which is dangerous because they are not peaceful and the government and the gallant security forces in the state have decided to move the governor to a safer place until this issue is resolved,” she said.

The senior state government official further stressed the need for a consensus to be reached between the civil servants and the state government saying the situation is tense and the state already troubled by the ongoing violence cannot stand another crisis.

“Now it is important for an understanding to be reached between the government here in Bor and the civil servants who are protesting against the government over salary,” the official said.

“The situation is tense and our state is in a problem of cattle raid and communal violence and it cannot stand this issue because the government is not being allowed to conduct its work,” she added.