A South Sudanese beauty pageant queen is nursing gunshot wounds after she was shot by an unidentified assailant at the Konyo-Konyo market in Juba on Wednesday.

Josephine Kiden Simon is the first South Sudanese to contest in Miss Deaf Africa and bagged the international crown in 2021 in Tanzania.

Grace, her sign language interpreter, told Radio Tamazuj Thursday that Kiden was shot on the right arm around 6 pm when they were walking home after attending a workshop.

“We were from a workshop, and as we were footing up to Konyo-Konyo almost reaching the market, they shot someone called Deng because he was close to Josephine, then it also went to Josephine. For Deng, it (the bullet) only damaged the hand, but for Josephine went from the arm through to her back, but according to the X-ray, there is no bullet inside,” she narrated.

She added that the 2021 Miss Deaf Winner is currently receiving treatment at a hospital in Juba.

“She is a bit okay but still with a lot of wounds because it cut her big wounds on the hand”, Grace added.

It remains unclear what happened in the market.

Police have not issued an official statement regarding the Wednesday evening incident.

Several social media users condemned the attempt to take Ms Josephine’s life and urged the police to apprehend the perpetrator to face the law.