The chairman of the South Sudan Civil Society Alliance Deng Athuai says that he was shot in his left leg with an AK-47 machine gun at 10:30 p.m. at South Sudan Hotel ‘2’ when he came outside from his room to the hotel courtyard to relax with some colleagues.

The civil society leader is currently under treatment at Juba Teaching Hospital.

In a brief statement he said, “Yeah, I was shot yesterday night when we were sitting outside the hotel compound. I did not know somebody was hiding near the mango trees with AK-47, only I heard a sound of a gun and I took off – suddenly I felt the bullets on my leg.”   

Athuai said he will be in a position to give further comments later once he has recovered.

For her part, Awal Deng Athuai, the wife of Athuai, confirmed that her husband was shot and the person responsible escaped from the scene.

A number of senior officials visited the wounded civil society leader, including the Police Inspector General Pieng Deng and the Presidential Spokesperson Ateny Wek, who was quoted by Sudan Tribune as saying, “This is [an] unfortunate development. Deng Athuai is a very respectful person.”

“He is someone who is objective and polite and I don’t know why this is happening.”

Family members said they will give an official statement later.

However, one of the relatives who was present during the incident complained that some security personnel were sitting next to them at the time of the shooting but did not respond to try to apprehend the shooter.

The police are yet to give a statement.

This is the second attempt on Athuai’s life in a period of just over two years. He was kidnapped at gunpoint in from the Nile Beach Hotel in Juba in 2012, then taken to the bush outside Juba blindfolded.

He feared that his captors would execute him, but they ran away when they heard some other people approaching, and Athuai was able to find his way back to the city. 

The civil society leader had led a march on parliament shortly before the kidnapping, calling on the president to unveil the names of corrupt officials.  

File photo: Deng Athuai

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