Six detained after footage of South Sudan’s president wetting himself leaked on social media

Six journalists in South Sudan have been detained over the viral footage that captured the embarrassing moment President Salva Kiir Mayardit wet himself at an official event.

The clip from December 2022 showed what appeared to be urine spreading down the 71-year-old president’s grey trousers as he stood for the national anthem at a road commissioning event.

The video never aired on television but it went viral on social media.

President of the South Sudan Union of Journalists, Patrick Oyet has confirmed that the journalists, who work with the state-run South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation, were detained on Tuesday and Wednesday January 4.

The detained journalists are camera operators Joseph Oliver and Mustafa Osman; video editor Victor Lado; contributor Jacob Benjamin; and Cherbek Ruben and Joval Toombe from the control room, Oyet said.

‘We are concerned because those who are detained now have stayed longer than what the law says,’ he added.

By law, South Sudanese authorities are allowed to detain suspects for only 24 hours before bringing them before a judge.

Kiir has been president since South Sudan gained independence in 2011. Government officials have repeatedly denied rumours circulating on social media that he is unwell.