Juba, South Sudan
December 9, 2021 —- A fire that broke out in custom market in Juba yesterday has left hundreds of traders, who spent their last dollars on Christmas stocking, hopeless and heartbroken.
While some traders said they borrowed capitals from banks and friends with hopes to make good sales during Christmas season to repay back the loans, others spent their last pennies hoping to make huge profit but all ended in unrecoverable losses.
Speaking to Nyamilepedia on Wednesday, Wani James one of the shop owners whose shop was burned to ashes said, he has lost all properties which he reserved for Christmas season and now he don’t know what to do.
“I have lost all clothes that purchased for Christmas and now I don’t know what to do since I left with nothing in hand”, James told Nyamilepedia from South Sudanese capital Juba.
Another trader, James said he has children to raise but now he doesn’t know where to feed them due to this incident that destroyed everything he had.
“I have wife and three kids but I don’t know what to give them and my shop is the only source of our income”, James explained.
He said they heard that the fire broke out from the perfumes shop but said what they didn’t know was what the owner was doing in his shop.
The traders estimate their loss at more than 100 million South Sudanese pounds and are appealing to the government to help them out.
“We have more than 62 shops that got burned and 108 shops with minor damages. The cost of the loss is more than hundred million. I am appealing to the government if they can give a helping hand to the traders in this situation.”, he added.
According to the statement seen by Nyamilepedia, some of the traders describes the incident as catastrophic to their businesses meanwhile blaming the fire brigade for late arrival at the scene.
“This fire erupted yesterday in that shop, it was a small flame, there were two men carrying two jerrycans of water trying to put the fire off, but the moment the splashing water on the fire and this caused a massive fire in the place,”the statement reads.
The fire reportedly broke out at around 6:00pm yesterday and lasted for about 3 hours, one of the reasons the traders blame the fire brigade to slow response..
According to the Chairperson of the Chamber of Commerce, the fire resulted from a perfume shop and spread to the entire block of the market.
This is not the first time a custom market has caught fire with several shops burnt.
In 2015, fire ripped through part of Custom Market and destroyed at least 15 shops.
Also in 2019, a fire outbreak at the same market burnt down some shops with traders estimating over hundreds of millions South Sudanese pounds loss.
