The head of a UN agency office in Juba who was shot last July was denied medical evacuation for several hours, putting his life at risk, according to a new report published by Foreign Policy.

The shooting of the UNESCO head in Juba Saleh Khaled was reported last July but new details have emerged since then revealing the circumstances of his shooting and his grave medical situation in the absence of medical treatment on the hours after he was shot.

Foreign Policy reported the details of the incident in an article published yesterday, “South Sudan’s Attacks on U.N. Could Imperil Future Peacekeeping.”

The article says, “Khaled’s vehicle came to a crawl about 30 yards from the front gate of the Egyptian Embassy when a man in civilian clothes charged at him from a military checkpoint across the street from the Panorama Hotel. A hail of bullets pierced the vehicle’s front passenger-side door and window, lodging fragments from four bullets into Khaled’s left thigh, arm, and hand.”

“Glass shattered all around Khaled as he floored the Land Cruiser toward the embassy’s entrance gate and into safety. But over the next two hours, South Sudanese security forces at the checkpoint turned back a U.N. ambulance headed to his aid at gunpoint, and then blocked U.N. peacekeepers from transporting him to a clinic at the U.N. compound in the center of Juba.”

“Not until after 10 p.m. did the presidential guard intervene to convince the security forces manning the checkpoint to allow Khaled to be taken to the U.N. clinic.”

A senior UN official quoted by the online publication says it was “a miracle” that the UNESCO officail survived the night.

South Sudan’s ambassador to Washington said he was unaware of the Khaled case. UNESCO officials withheld judgment on the culprits in the attack against Khaled, telling Foreign Policy that the case remains under investigation.

But a senior U.S. State Department official and a senior U.N. official said it was clear that government forces shot Khaled, according to Foreign Policy.

The US-based publication says his shooting “marked the beginning of a new and more brutal phase of a campaign of violence by government forces against foreign nationals.”

Photo credit: UNMISS