The community of Eritreans living in Juba demonstrated yesterday after three men from Eritrea were killed in a brazen daylight robbery on Monday in the Hai Cinema neighborhood.
A large group of Eritrean nationals went out into the street leading from Juba Teaching Hospital where their countrymen were laid and marched to Airport Road, disrupting the flow of traffic in the area.
An eyewitness said the Eritreans were heading to the airport in order to transport the dead home on an airplane.
The demonstrators also gathered in front of International Commercial Bank along Airport Road and the Eritrean ambassador to South Sudan came to address them.
Danierre, a member of the demonstrators, explained that the ambassador urged his countrymen to stay calm, saying that alhough the incident was intentional it was not done by any of the authorities in the country.
“We need to stay calm and leave the case to the government of South Sudan… we will not do anything and we as your eye in South Sudan will try our level best to work with the police and other legal authorities to ensure your safety here and you have to go back to your normal businesses and stay calm please,” the ambassador reportedly told the demonstrators.
The crowd then dispersed after causing a traffic jam along the road leading to Juba airport. Police have declined to comment about the killings.
Separately, an eyewitness and a Hai Cinema resident told Radio Tamazuj that the incident happened at Keren Hotel. He said he thought the incident involved a group of Eritrean businessmen and several South Sudanese escorting them while they were carrying large amounts of cash to the bank.
The source said that masked gunmen on a ‘boda-boda’ started shooting the businessmen as they were carrying the cash.
A watchman at the hotel has reportedly been taken by police for investigation.
Radio Tamazuj earlier reported that the incident happened near Quality Hotel in Hai Cinema but later sources reported that the initial shooting began near Keren and other gunshots may have been fired near Quality Hotel during the police response to the incident.