2 arrested after Juba protest over living costs

JUBA – At least two people have been arrested after a group of citizens went to the streets of Juba’s Konyokonyo market to protest rising cost of living in the country in which they urged the government to “Save our lives from hyperinflation.”

This comes after the president removed the country’s finance ministry and the governor of central bank after a rapid decline in the strength of the local current, Pound, against foreign currencies such as the United States Dollar.

The protesters also urged the government to address or find a solution to the youth unemployment.

“We organized the protest and when we were trying to move in Konyokonyo market, the policemen as well as the national security arrive and they caught two of our people,” one of the protesters is quoted by Eye Radio as saying.

The unnamed protester said one of the security officers shot in the air to disperse the protesters and that the whereabouts of those arrested remains unknown.

“One of the security organs who came and shot in the air and later on he caught my brother. So, we are urging the security organ whether national security or the Ministry of Interior who have apprehended them to release them.”