South Sudan minister shot dead in Juba

A south Sudan minister, Jimmy Lemi Milla, and his bodyguard were shot dead in Juba yesterday, the southern army’s spokesman said, in an apparent personal dispute.

“There was shooting at the ministries (complex) in which the minister of cooperatives and rural development was killed as well as his bodyguard,” Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) spokesman Philip Aguer said.

Witnesses said the killer broke into Mr Lemi’s car, parked outside the ministry, grabbed a gun that his bodyguard had left behind and entered the office of the minister whom he shot several times.

“He shot the minister with two shots to the forehead, two in the shoulders and one in the arm, and he died immediately,” said Thomas Wani Kondo, an MP with the south’s ruling SPLM.

He added that the assailant then shot and killed Mr Lemi’s bodyguard, before being wrestled to the ground. The two bodies were taken away in ambulances.

Mr Kondo, who is from the same area as Mr Lemi, said the killer was related to the minister by marriage and had worked for him but had been sacked and sought revenge.

“He wanted to claim the money he had not been paid for his salary for the past two months,” Mr Kondo said.

Contradicting earlier reports, Mr Kondo said the killer was not Mr Lemi’s driver and had not taken his own life. “He was wrestled to the ground, and the security services have him in custody now,” the MP said.

The mood was sombre outside the ministries on Wednesday, just two days after the announcement of final results from the January 9-15 referendum on independence for south Sudan triggered wild cele-brations in Juba.

Monday’s announcement confirmed that an overwhelming 98.83 per cent of southerners backed separation from the north.

“This is such a shock to the people here, coming so soon after our peaceful referendum,” said Richard Lukodu, a civil service worker.

“This is something for which I cannot express my sadness. This is the result of one angry man, and people should not think that this is reflective of all of south Sudan.”

The SPLA’s Philip Aguer said the ministries were calm and the situation back under control. “But it is a very sad day for the people of south Sudan.”

Mr Lemi, from the south’s Bari ethnic group, was a member of Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party but joined the southern ex-rebel groups after the two sides signed a 2005 peace agreement to end more than 20 years of civil war.

He was appointed to the cabinet last year after a minor reshuffle following the death of south Sudan’s agriculture minister and veteran SPLA official Samson Kwaje.