South Sudan’s veteran journalist Salvatore Deng Manyuol has died at the age of 70, his family has confirmed.
Salvatore passed on at Aweil Civil Hospital from kidney failure, a complication he had been battling for years.
Madut Santino Deng, a family representative, told Radio Tamazuj on Friday that the late had also been suffering from hypertension.
“The reason of his death was kidney failure, we have made some efforts but the disease came accidentally. If it gave us a chance, we would have controlled it. He has also suffered from hypertension which disabled his limbs,” Deng explained.
The State Minister of Information, William Anyuon Kuol, eulogized the late recounting him as a brave journalist and nationalist who contributed to the country’s independence.
“Of course, he [late] was a great journalist during the Sudan period and he wrote a lot of articles for newspapers, so he was a great person,” William said.
Garang Akech, one of the local journalists in the area, described the late Salvatore as a mentor who has raised the bar for aspiring journalists in the country.
“Deng was one of the media cadres in Sudan and South Sudan. He presented the history of South Sudan to the whole world, I am one of his followers because he was the one who showed us the importance of journalism,” Akech eulogized.
Salvatore Deng Manyuol was born in 1952 in Aweil town of Northern Bahr el Ghazal State.
He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in commerce in 1977. He later joined media in Sudan in the late 1970s.
He also worked as a host for Radio Omdurman before he became press secretary for Bahr el Ghazal governor in 1985.