American journalist killed in South Sudan fighting

At least 19 people have been killed in South Sudan, including an American freelance journalist, after fighting broke out between government troops and rebel forces in the southern part of the country, rebel leaders and the military said.

Christopher Allen, who worked with various news outlets was killed in heavy fighting in the town of Kaya in Yei River State on Saturday.

However a South Sudanese army spokesman denied that Allen, who was killed covering conflict there on August 26, was deserving of civilian status. The Committee to Protect Journalists called for an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Allen’s death, and urged authorities to respect all journalists’ status as civilians.

Allen had been embedded with opposition forces for two weeks, Col. Lam Paul Gabriel, the rebel’s deputy spokesman, told CPJ. South Sudan army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said journalists who enter the country with rebel forces will not be protected, The Associated Press reported. “Anybody who comes attacking us with hostile forces will meet his fate,” Koang told journalists, according to AP.

“We are sad for his family. He came here to tell our story,” one rebel fighter, who asked not to be named, said. He added that Allen had been in the middle of the fighting and wearing a jacket marked ‘PRESS’.

“Taking photographs and reporting events is not attacking. It is journalistic work done by civilians, who are protected under international law,” said CPJ AfricaProgram Coordinator Angela Quintal in New York. “We call for a credible, independent investigation into the killing of Christopher Allen so that those responsible can be held to account.”