Journalist killed in South Sudan after president threatens reporters

Aug. 20, 2015: Relatives and other mourners watch as the body of South Sudanese journalist Peter Julius Moi is taken into the mortuary in Juba, South Sudan. (AP)

JUBA, South Sudan –  A South Sudanese journalist was shot dead by unknown gunmen in the outskirts of the country's capital, his father said Thursday, in an attack that came days after President Salva Kiir was reported to have threatened to kill reporters "working against the country."

Peter Julius Moi, a reporter for Corporate Weekly, was shot twice in the back Wednesday night, Moi's father, Julius Kilong Ramoi said.

The international journalists' rights group, the Committee to Project Journalists, quoted Kiir as threatening journalists on Sunday.

"If anybody among (journalists) does not know that this country has killed people, we will demonstrate it one day, one time. ... Freedom of the press does not mean you work against the country," Kiir was reported telling journalists.

Earlier this month, two newspapers said the government stopped their operations in an apparent crackdown on the independent media.

Moi was shot dead in the Jebel area of the capital, Juba. Otieno Ogeda, chief executive officer of Corporate Weekly, said the media house had not received threats over recent articles Moi wrote, including two that focused on the scaling back of operations of South Sudan's only brewery. The body was found near the brewery, but Moi also lived in the same area.

Nothing was stolen from Moi during the attack, Ogeda said.

"Everything was intact, even the money in his pocket was never stolen, even his phone was not taken away," he said.

Moi is the seventh journalist to be killed in South Sudan this year.

In December 2013, troops loyal to Kiir clashed with those loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar. Machar signed a peace deal on Monday to end the continued fighting while Kiir has promised to sign in coming days.