In South Sudan, Africa’s newest country, six journalists have been arrested over a footage which has circulated appearing to show the country’s President, Salva Kiir, wetting himself, media rights groups reveal.
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| Salva Kiir, President of South Sudan. Photo: Reuters via Al Jazeera |
Six staff from the state broadcaster were arrested this week, and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is now calling for their release.
A video shared on social media, in December, seemed to have show President Kiir wetting himself as the national anthem played at a function.
journalists “are suspected of having knowledge on how the video of the president urinating himself came out”, President of the South Sudan Union of Journalists, Patrick Oyet told Reuters.
Muthoki Mumo, CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative, calling for their release unconditionally, said, the arrests match “a pattern of security personnel resorting to arbitrary detention whenever officials deem coverage unfavourable”.
About South Sudan:
• Africa’s newest country
• Declare and recognized as an independent country from Sudan on 9 July, 2011
• Its capital city is Juba and it is the largest in the country
• Bordered by Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Kenya
• In 2019, its population was estimated at 12,778,250
