Incident
Journalist Christopher Allen killed in S Sudan fighting
Details
Christopher Allen, who worked with various news outlets, including Al Jazeera in the past, was killed in heavy fighting in the town of Kaya in Yei River State on Saturday.
"On the ground, about 16 [bodies] have been found around the defensive position of the SPLA including this white man," military spokesman Santo Domic Chol told Reuters news agency, referring to the SPLA national army.
Three government soldiers were also killed, he said.
Rebel forces identified the man found as Allen, who had embedded with them for the past week, along with two other journalists.
"We are sad for his family. He came here to tell our story," one rebel fighter, who asked not to be named, said.
He added that Allen had been in the middle of the fighting and wearing a jacket marked 'PRESS'.
The US embassy in the country confirmed that Allen had been killed and that his family had been notified.
After gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan descended into war in December 2013, pitting President
Salva Kiir's troops against those or rebel leader and former Vice President Riek Machar.
A peace accord was
signed in August 2015 and Machar returned to the capital in April last year to share power with Kiir, before the deal fell apart less than three months later and Machar and his supporters
fled the capital.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 3.5 million have been displaced since the conflict began.
The war has created what has been called the world's fastest-growing
refugee crisis and both sides of the conflict have been accused of abuses.
