Fact-check: Post alleging that South Sudan has ordered foreign nationals operating small businesses to leave the country immediately, is false

Fact-check: Post** alleging that South Sudan has ordered foreign nationals operating small businesses to leave the country immediately, is false**

The order directs foreign business owners to leave small-scale retail businesses to South Sudanese nationals.

**Writer: Wani Yusif Farjallah **

This Post (archived here) alleging that South Sudan has ordered foreign nationals operating small-scale businesses to leave South Sudan is false.

The post, published on “X” (formerly known as Twitter), reads,* “BREAKING: South Sudan has ordered all Ugandans, Kenyans, Eritreans and Burundians operating small businesses to leave their country immediately.”*

A screenshot of the post alleging that South Sudan has ordered foreign nationals operating small businesses to leave South Sudan

The post attracted the attention of many social media users and was widely circulated across social media platforms like X, posted here and on Facebook here, here and here.

Screenshots of posts reporting the alleged order to expel foreign nationals from South Sudan.

The posts attracted mixed reactions from social media users across X and Facebook platforms with some expressing frustration, while others dismissed it as misleading.

Evidence:

The posts seemingly began circulating following a clip of Honorable Kalisto Lado, the Caretaker Commissioner of Juba County published on 5 October 2026. Kalisto made the statement when organizing part of Kuburi Haboba market and Road that vendors have blocked in Juba County.

However, after investigating and listening to the original video clip of the Honorable Kalisto posted here on Juba County’s Facebook page on the 05th October 2026, we discovered that the Commissioner’s message was either distorted on purpose or misunderstood by a section of social media users as the commissioner made the statement in Arabic.

The transcription of the part of the video that talks about the foreign nationals is as follows:

“And I also want to say, No foreign national should be a small business retailer in Juba county at all. You cannot leave your country just for you to come and sell chapati, to sell onions and tomatoes… What will our South Sudanese women be selling? Such things are not going to be allowed. If the foreign nationals come and are engaged in selling charcoal, what will South Sudanese be doing? If the foreign nationals come and start riding Boda-Boda, what Boda-Boda will our youth be riding?

If you’re a foreign national and you want to engage in business, start a company like the pharmacy for Dr. Osam. This is how a foreigner can come and start a business like this.

To all the foreign nationals from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Uganda and to all other foreign nationals who are in here [South Sudan], we welcome you, we’ll give you security, we’ll stay together and we’ll not discriminate against you but with business, especially the retail business, is only reserved for South Sudanese. If you are a foreigner and you want to invest in business, invest in a wholesale business. So that our people [South Sudanese] buy from you [wholesale] and they retail. Start a big company and employ South Sudanese. You cannot come to South Sudan and also engage and compete with South Sudanese selling those small small things.”

Following the posts claiming that the country has ordered foreign nationals to leave, Honorable Kalisto Lado, on the 6th October 2026 issued a clarification.

The Commissioner clarified that he didn’t send foreign nationals away from South Sudan as alluded in the social media report but he did urge foreigners nationals to leave retail businesses to South Sudanese nationals while they [foreigners] do wholesale businesses.

“I made a statement during my cleaning campaign and organizational campaign in Kuburi Haboba and my statement was, the foreigners should not be trading on retail business but let them be doing wholesale. So, this is not sending people away, but this another way of protecting our own businesses,” Kalisto clarified.

He added that, “So, I am encouraging the foreigners who are coming to us here [South Sudan] to come with capital for businesses.* Huge capital for establishing companies or constructing industries or factories that will produce goods that will help our people and that will also employ our people.”*

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of South Sudan has also issued a statement published here clarifying the statement made by Honorable Kalisto Lado on foreign nationals engaging in small scale businesses.

The statement said there’s no directive from the national government requiring foreign nationals to leave South Sudan.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has taken note of the recent public statement concerning the foreign nationals participating in small-scale commercial activities in Juba, the Ministry wishes to clarify that there’s no directive from the national government requiring foreign nationals to leave South Sudan,” the statement reads in part.

“The Government recognizes that commercial activities are subject to applicable laws and regulations, and any measures relating to such activities are to be addressed by competent authorities in accordance with the law,” the statement added.

At the time of this publication, there was no written document from any level of the Government that indicates that, foreign nationals have been ordered to leave South Sudan or even barred from carrying out small-scale businesses within South Sudan.

Conclusion:

The post making rounds across social media alleging that South Sudan has ordered foreign nationals operating small-scale businesses to leave South Sudan, is false.

The order rather demands foreign nationals doing small-scale businesses to leave retail businesses to South Sudanese nationals while they engage in large-scale business.

This fact-check was produced by Hot in Juba as part of the African Fact-Checking Alliance’s (AFCA) incubation programme. It was produced with peer-mentorship from Code for Africa’s fact-checking initiative, PesaCheck, with financial support from the* Digital Democracy Initiative** within the framework of the** Digitalise Youth project** led by the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD).** AFCA mentorship respects the journalistic independence of the researchers, offering access to advanced techniques and tools. Editorial decision-making remains with Hot in Juba. Want to learn more? Visit:** https://factcheck.africa/*

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Fact-check: Post alleging that South Sudan has ordered foreign nationals operating small businesses to leave the country immediately, is false

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