The building housing an NGO in Juba PoCon fire - courtesy

A fire outbreak has left at least ten houses and an NGO office burnt at the Protection of Civilians Site on Yei road.

This is according to Peter Malual – the Camp One Chairman.

The incident reportedly occurred yesterday at around 5pm.

Pictures and video footage shared online shows firefighters and police officers struggling to contain the intense inferno as it wrecked the overcrowded-poorly constructed makeshift shelters.

Mr. Peter Malual stated that an office belonging to one of the relief organizations, Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development or ACTED, also got burnt into ashes.

It is not clear what triggered the fire.

“What happened yesterday was a fire incident that took place at 5 PM. There were five shelters that got burned together with the ACTED office and the office of the church nearby it and another shop of a foreigner,” Malual to Eye Radio.

“The cause of the fire was unknown. There was no clear evidence even this morning. We thank the state fire brigade and the South Sudan national police.

“They came and helped a lot. What made it not intensify and burn more than 100 shelters is because of their efforts and we appreciate that.”

Bushfires are common across the country during the dry season. Most of them are started by farmers as part of field preparations.

Environmentalists have always asked authorities to prevent such incidents by enforcing laws against bush burning. But such calls seem to have gone in vain.

There are approximately 15,000 IDPs sheltering at the PoC site on the Juba-Yei road based on the 2021 data by the United Nations.