For the first time since American-British journalist, Christopher Allen, was killed in South Sudan more than a year and a half ago, his parents are publicly demanding that the country’s government deliver justice for the death of their son.
“We saw him taking photos, he was a white rebel that was filming,” Peter Mabior, a sergeant with the government army who fought in the August attack, told theStanding at the edge of a field a few streets off of Kaya’s main road and behind several dilapidated mud huts, Mabior points to a grassy patch on the ground where he said Allen was killed. “To us he was one of the rebels, even now we still think he’s a rebel,” he said.
Five years of fighting in the war-torn country has killed almost 400,000 people, displaced millions and plunged pockets of the nation into famine. South Sudan’s government has been accused for its culture of “pervasive impunity” with few government-led investigations conducted in order to hold soldiers to account, according to a report in February by the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan.
“Whether the violence came from the hands of a private entity or an individual or from the government the obligation is the same because it’s an obligation to protect the right to life of everybody within the territory,” said Andrew Clapham, a member of the UN commission and a law professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.
Chris Allen came to South Sudan for the first time at the beginning of August 2017, crossing into the country with the opposition from the Ugandan border. He spent weeks living at the rebels’ headquarters in Panyume, a small, nondescript town in Central Equatoria state, trying to understand what they were fighting for. It was the longest stint any journalist had spent with them during the conflict.
“Shots were intentionally fired in this direction, not ricochet, not an accidental wide spray of shots but rather a series of shots all in a line,” said an expert neuropathologist, who didn’t want to be named. For its part, the opposition is requesting an independent body to conduct the investigation, said spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel.Allen’s death has raised questions about the measures journalists, particularly freelancers, take in securing their own safety in conflict zones. South Sudan’s fighting is complex with shifting frontlines and guerilla warfare conducted in remote areas, often by soldiers with limited formal training.