This evening Konyo Konyo Market burned to the ground. How much of it I can not say, but by the smoke that was billowing into the sky I would say a lot of it. Konya Konya is/was the biggest market in Juba. Recently the city had started tearing it down in order to replace the makeshift building with proper structures. Slowly people were closing down shop and relocating or closing down their businesses. Konyo Konyo employes a lot of people and was a main source of income for many people in Juba. At 6pm I saw a huge cloud of black smoke in the sky, which is a relatively normal occurrence, however this cloud was too large to just be trash or grass burning. Later on in the evening you could see the red glow under the black smoke. This is when one of my co-workers told me Konyo Konyo was burning. Horrible. Really sad to think about the livelihoods that have been destroyed in the fire. On my way out to dinner with friends we were driving quite close to the area and you could actually see flames rising up over buildings from a distance. And this was 2 hours after I initially saw the smoke. The fire was huge. A combination of lack of emergency response and what Konyo Konyo is comprised of, which is a lot of flammable material, is what caused the fire to be so out of control. One friend pointed out that it is good there is little electricity in the area which would reduce the damage made.
I can't imagine the aftermath of this fire. All I hope is that no lives were lost. Quite tragic.
No happy note to end with on this one...
How sad. I hope no one was injured. What will happen now?
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