South Sudan has said it plans to investigate the death of journalist Christopher Allen who was killed in 2017 while covering the country's bloody civil war.
Minister of Cabinet Affairs Martin Elia Lomuro announced in a statement issued late Monday that a committee had been established "to investigate the circumstances of the death of journalist Christopher Allen".
The United States and Britain as well as media campaign groups and Allen's family have long called for a probe into his killing on August 26, 2017.
The 26-year-old freelance reporter, a dual American-British national, was shot in the head during a battle between the South Sudanese army and rebels in the southwestern town of Kawa.
Embedded with rebels
Allen had been embedded with rebels from the Sudan People's Liberation Army In Opposition (SPLA-IO) to report on the conflict that erupted just two years after the country declared independence.
The 2013-2018 war between forces loyal to two sworn enemies, President Salva Kiir and his now deputy Riek Machar, claimed the lives of almost 400,000 people.
After Allen's death, the government denied reports that its soldier s had deliberately killed him.
"The killing of Christopher Allen was not targeted," Information Minister Michael Makuei said at the time. "But anybody on that side is usually a target."
'White rebel'
Makuei had previously described Allen as a "white rebel" and claimed he had been in the country illegally.
In August, the United States and Britain issued a statement on the sixth anniversary of Allen's killing calling for South Sudan to conduct a "credible investigation".
Reporters Without Borders, known by its French acronym RSF, has also been urging the United States to lead a pro be into his death because of Juba's "failure to hold anyone accountable".
"Available information demonstrates that war crimes were committed in the deliberate targeting of Allen and the treatment of his body after his death, including trophy-style photos," it said in a statement in August.
Press freedom
South Sudan ranks 118th out of 180 countries on RSF's 2023 World Press Freedom Index and the group says at least nine journalists have been killed in the world's youngest country since 2014.
"Impunity prevails in nearly all cases. Both South Sudanese and foreign journalists who try to p rovide independent reporting expose themselves to execution, torture, abduction, arbitrary detention, poisoning, and harassment," RSF says on its website.
