South Sudan Aid Doctor Killed ‘in Cold Blood’ Amid Rising Attacks

A file photo shows South Sudanese policemen and soldiers are seen along a street following renewed fighting in South Sudan’s capital Juba, July 10, 2016 (Photo: Reuters)
A file photo shows South Sudanese policemen and soldiers are seen along a street following renewed fighting in South Sudan’s capital Juba, July 10, 2016 (Photo: Reuters)
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South Sudan Aid Doctor Killed ‘in Cold Blood’ Amid Rising Attacks

A file photo shows South Sudanese policemen and soldiers are seen along a street following renewed fighting in South Sudan’s capital Juba, July 10, 2016 (Photo: Reuters)
A file photo shows South Sudanese policemen and soldiers are seen along a street following renewed fighting in South Sudan’s capital Juba, July 10, 2016 (Photo: Reuters)

A South Sudanese doctor was murdered in the northern, oil-rich Unity state, and colleagues threatened Sunday to go on strike if those responsible are not found.

The murder, which took place Friday, follows the killing of a nurse in April in Eastern Equatoria, a south-eastern state.

On Sunday, a statement released by The South Sudan Doctors’ Union (SSDU), said it was “deeply saddened on the killing of our member, Dr. Louis Edward Saleh in Ganyiel village in Unity State.”

South Sudan is one of the most dangerous countries for humanitarians, with nine aid workers killed there last year, according to the UN.

In January, an aid worker with Joint Aid Management (JAM) was shot dead near Bentiu, which is also in Unity state.

The SSDU said Saleh was working at a clinic sponsored by the International Rescue Committee charity, and was “was killed in cold blood within the facility.”

The IRC did not immediately respond to the report but the regional health ministry said an investigation had been launched.

The SSDU expressed alarm at a series of alleged threats, beatings, arrests, detentions, tortures and killings in several states in recent months.

In mid-May, a humanitarian worker died when an aid convoy came under fire in the west of the country, according to the UN.

The SSDU threatened a strike if investigations are not carried out and those responsible for killing Saleh and the nurse are not found and prosecuted.

South Sudan is struggling to emerge from a six-year civil war that claimed some 380,000 lives and officially ended with the creation of a government of national unity in February last year.



Trump Loses Appeal of E. Jean Carroll $5 million Defamation Verdict    

Former US President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, US, on Thursday, April 25, 2024. Jeenah Moon/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Former US President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, US, on Thursday, April 25, 2024. Jeenah Moon/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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Trump Loses Appeal of E. Jean Carroll $5 million Defamation Verdict    

Former US President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, US, on Thursday, April 25, 2024. Jeenah Moon/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Former US President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, US, on Thursday, April 25, 2024. Jeenah Moon/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a $5 million verdict that E. Jean Carroll won against Donald Trump when a jury found the US president-elect liable for sexually abusing and later defaming the former magazine columnist.

The decision was issued by a three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.

The May 2023 verdict stemmed from an incident around 1996 in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan, where Carroll said Trump raped her, and an October 2022 Truth Social post where Trump denied Carroll's claim as a hoax.

Though jurors in federal court in Manhattan did not find that Trump committed rape, they awarded the former Elle magazine advice columnist $2.02 million for sexual assault and $2.98 million for defamation, Reuters reported.

A different jury ordered Trump in January to pay Carroll $83.3 million for defaming her and damaging her reputation in June 2019, when he first denied her rape claim.

In both denials, Trump said he did not know Carroll, she was "not my type," and that she fabricated the rape claim to promote her memoir. He is appealing the $83.3 million verdict.

Carroll's cases are continuing despite Trump's having won a second four-year White House term on Nov. 5.

In 1997, in a case involving former President Bill Clinton, the US Supreme Court ruled unanimously that sitting presidents have no immunity from civil litigation in federal court over actions predating and unrelated to their official duties as president.

Trump's lawyers argued the $5 million verdict should be thrown out because the trial judge should not have let jurors hear testimony from two other women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct.

One, businesswoman Jessica Leeds, said Trump groped her on a plane in the late 1970s. The other, former People magazine writer, Natasha Stoynoff, said Trump forcibly kissed her at his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2005.

Trump's lawyers also said the trial judge should not have let jurors watch a 2005 "Access Hollywood" video where Trump boasted graphically about forcing himself on women.

Both trials were overseen by US District Judge Lewis Kaplan.