The main market of Juba has closed after widespread panic caused citizens to flee from the market and surrounding areas. Witnesses reported that crowds started running after seeing a fight in the port area, known as ‘Mina,’ sparking further chaos in the nearby market.

According to a security officer who spoke to Radio Tamazuj, a mere fight broke out this afternoon in the Mina area among workers who were offloading goods in the port. Another source in the Mina area offered a somewhat different account, saying that fishermen from the Dinka and Nuer tribes began fighting, prompting an intervention by police who fired shots into the air to disperse the fight.

When citizens saw people running in the port, they started panicking and running, after which people in Konyo Konyo market started closing their shops in fear.

Another witness passing through the area at around 4:45 p.m. reported that shops are closed in Konyo Konyo, and that soldiers are deployed near to the river including about ten on each side of the bridge.

A similar stampede was reported elsewhere in Juba at about the same time. An eyewitness said that three people were knocked by cars and one by a motorbike on the main road to Custom Market, next to Nyakoron Culture Center.

He said that he was going out from his house when he saw people panicking in Custom Market. The street was crowded with people who were running.

The witness said that he was told that there were a fight in Custom Market that led to the panic.

Speaking from Custom Market, shopkeeper Awad Musa said that they started to close their shops after the incident in Konyo Kono, fearing something bad.

“In fact nobody can tell exactly what was going on but only that they were running, as people run they call their relatives that something bad is happening in the Konyo Konyo market,” he said

In Gudele, one of the residential areas of Juba, citizens went out onto the roads to find out what was happening in the town, as people were running in panic and fear.

Private buses, known as ‘muwasalat,’ have stopped working in at least some parts of the city. The United Nations and some international non-governmental organizations have issued advisories to their personnel about movement in the city at this time.

Photo: Konyo Konyo market in Juba, South Sudan, February 2013 (Jon Brown)

Update, 5:35 p.m.: Mayor Mohammed El Haj Baballa speaking on state radio has assured the people of Juba that the situation is under the full control of the security forces. He said that fighting between two citizens caused police to fire into the air. 

“There is no problem… what has happened was not a big issue, it was just one bullet… and that was the cause of the panic in Juba.”

“There is nothing to worry anybody, so everybody can just move freely, the buses can move freely,” said the mayor.