A fire outbreak at Custom Market in Juba has destroyed goods worth millions of South Sudanese Pounds on Wednesday morning, a local official and eyewitnesses said.
Michael Ladu Allah-Jabu, the Mayor of Juba City Council, told Radio Tamazuj that preliminary reports indicate that the fire was caused by an electrical fault at the market.
According to Allah-Jabu, the fire broke out in the morning hours and lasted for nearly an hour.
The mayor further said an unidentified number of shops and a variety of goods are said to have been destroyed by the fire. He added that the number of shops and goods consumed by the fire is yet to be determined.
“The report will be clear after the investigation. When the investigation is done, we will be able to give a detailed report about the cause and then also the items that have been lost in that particular report,” Allah-Jabu said.
No fire brigade vehicles came on time to quell the blaze, he added.
The municipal official said he had given orders to reorganize the market and that the city council will work together with the administration of the University of Juba to modernize the market.
“What I want to tell the public is that we don’t have direct responsibility in the market. The market is in the facility of the University of Juba, and it is they who are directly responsible for the place. So it will take us time to engage the administration of the University of Juba,” he explained.
An eyewitness, who preferred anonymity, said the fire outbreak destroyed at least 10 shops. He pointed out that the cause of the blaze was electrical.
“After the fire outbreak in the market, officials from the Juba City Council and the police came to the scene. The traders also worked together and managed to quell the blaze,” he said.
This is purportedly the fourth time Custom Market has caught fire with several shops burnt.
In 2015, an extensive fire ripped through part of Custom Market and destroyed at least 15 shops.
In 2019, a fire outbreak at the same market burnt down some shops with traders estimating hundreds of millions of South Sudanese Pounds losses.
In December last year, traders at Custom Market counted losses of goods worth millions of South Sudanese Pounds after a fire gutted 62 shops.