Properties worth millions of South Sudanese Pounds (SSP) were destroyed when fire gutted a shop selling clothes at Jou market in Wau town on Thursday, traders said.

Hashim Abakar Isahag, the shop owner, said he could hardly understand how his shop, which was in the middle of other shops, caught fire.

The trader claimed a lot of money was lost after his shop caught fire. “I don’t know what exactly happened. I closed my shop and did not expect it since I don’t have any problem with anyone here in the state. I had inside the shop 12 million SSP which got burnt,” Isahag said.

He added, “The state government did its best to stand with us because without them, the whole of the market would have been consumed by the fire”.

David Angelo, the acting trade chamber chairman, said some people tried to rescue the goods, but the burning fire was too much.

“When we got a call, we rushed to the place in Jou market, got the shop burning and started to rescue it using water. We managed to reduce it, but the danger was that the shop had plastics and clothes. We decided to break three nearby shops to access the burning shop and remove some of the clothes,” he said.

Gordon Machar, the police officer at the market, said some unknown people threw something into the shop, which caused fire.

He said they ensured the nearby shops were not gutted by the fire.