[Juba, South Sudan, TCT] – At least one person has been killed, another wounded as South Sudan security forces launched mass crackdown on illegal money traders to tame parallel market and bring sanity to the U.S dollar rate, Police confirmed on Tuesday.
South Sudan Police Spokesman, Colonel Daniel Justin, told TCT by phone in Juba that during its security meeting last week the government decided to deploy combined forces of police, military and national security operatives in several markets to arrest illicit money sellers.
“Yesterday my office received a report of an incident where two people were shot by the joint security force in Juba town during a government patrol,” Justine said.
He said the police regretted the loss of lives and noted that the move was not to kill the targeted group but was to tame the parallel market profiteers from inflating the rate.
The move came days after country’s Central Bank announced a plan to inject more hard currency into the economy to improve the debilitating state of the economy in the country and to avoid the local currency from losing its value further.
Peter Akech Deng, businessman in Juba town, said there is high demand for it from importers and traders and the government has not been able to effectively control it since the Central Bank has limited reserves.
“The Government has a right to do what it deems appropriate to bring the US dollar crisis back to normal, but they should not shoot at the innocent people,” Deng said.
He said the prices of food commodities will continue to remain high in the market if the rate of the dollar to pounds keeps increasing.
South Sudan floated the fixed exchange rate in 2015, since then the South Sudanese pound continues to weaken against U.S dollars causing high living costs in the country.
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