South Sudan says no hint that dead American was a journalist

U.S. Consul Denise Knapp, center, speaks to the media, accompanied by South Sudanese army officials and ministry of foreign affairs representatives, after the body of killed American journalist Christopher Allen was officially handed over to the U.S. embassy, at a mortuary in the capital Juba, South Sudan Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017. The 28-year-old freelance journalist was killed Saturday amid fighting between government and rebel forces near the Ugandan border. (AP Photo/Mariah Quesada) U.S. Consul Denise Knapp, center, speaks to the media, accompanied by South Sudanese army officials and ministry of foreign affairs representatives, after the body of killed American journalist Christopher Allen was officially handed over to the U.S. embassy, at a mortuary in the capital Juba, South Sudan Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017. The 28-year-old freelance journalist was killed Saturday amid fighting between government and rebel forces near the Ugandan border. (AP Photo/Mariah Quesada)

By Associated Press August 29, 2017 2 min read

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) – The American journalist shot dead in South Sudan over the weekend had entered the country illegally with rebels, the army said Tuesday.

There was no indication that Christopher Allen, 26, was a journalist, said army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang, who warned that journalists will not be protected if they come with rebels into this East African country’s civil war.

“Anybody who comes attacking us with hostile forces will meet his fate,” said Koang.

Allen, a freelance journalist, was killed Saturday in fighting between government and rebel forces near the Ugandan border. His body was handed over by South Sudan’s army to the U.S. Embassy on Tuesday.

Allen was shot in the head with a “large bullet,” the army’s chief medical officer, Dr. Peter Ajak Bullen, said, but he couldn’t confirm that the American was killed at close range.