South Sudan: UN expert urges FBI to investigate 2017 death of American journalist - France 24

Geneva (AFP)

The FBI must investigate the death of an American journalist in South Sudan, killed three years ago by the South Sudanese army while covering fighting between government troops and rebels, a Council of the Council expert has asked. UN Human Rights.

Christopher Allen, a 26-year-old freelance journalist and photographer, was shot in the head while accompanying ("embedded") rebels in late August 2017 in the town of Kaya, in the far south of South Sudan, on the border with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"The fact that for three years no independent investigation was conducted into Mr. Allen's murder sends a very dangerous signal that journalists can be targeted with impunity," said Agnès Callamard, special rapporteur for UN on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

"The governments of South Sudan and the United States can and must take steps to ensure that the circumstances of Mr. Allen's murder are fully and independently investigated," she added. a statement.

For the expert, whose opinion does not commit the UN, "the FBI has a duty, both legal and moral, to investigate the murder of Mr. Allen because there are well-founded suspicions that War crimes may have been committed by members of the Southern Sudanese forces. "

South Sudan, which gained independence in 2011 with essential support from Washington, its main donor, sank into civil war two years later.

A peace agreement was signed in 2018, and the country is recovering painfully from this violence which in six years has killed more than 380,000 people and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.

Besides Mr. Allen, at least ten other journalists were killed with impunity during the civil war, according to the UN expert.

"The murder of Mr. Allen is indicative of the wider climate of hostility towards journalists in the country," she said.

On January 30, Ms. Callamard wrote to South Sudanese authorities asking them to investigate the case but did not receive a response.

After sending a similar request to the FBI, the United States replied that it had expressed its concerns in South Sudan, she added, noting that London had expressed concerns over the lack of an investigation. .

© 2020 AFP