Barricade tape for crime scene (Courtesy)

South Sudan ambassador to Uganda is appealing to compatriots living there to stop spreading misinformation online after a burglary incident was falsely linked to a South Sudanese family.

Ambassador Simon Juach Deng made the appeal after a video circulated on social media of a criminal in Kampala who broke into a house and started beating children as he demanded money.

The unruly man reportedly inflicted severe injuries on the children before being shot by police.

South Sudanese on Facebook and WhatsApp were quick to condemn the footage as a xenophobia against their countrymen.

However, Ambassador Deng clarified that the incident did not happen to a South Sudanese family as circulated online.

“I have just been contacted this morning, I even saw a WhatsApp group people are discussing about it, that it is a South Sudanese house in Lowero, which is a lie,” he told Eye Radio.

He appealed to the online users to refrain from connecting every bad incident occurring around the world to South Sudan.

“Am appealing to South Sudanese, we do not really have to wish ourselves every bad thing. This incident happened two days ago and I was only made aware of a communication that happened in a WhatsApp group. It is not correct.”

“We are sending our formal report but it has nothing to do with South Sudan, so people who are creating this stories we really do not understand what are their motive.”

Uganda hosts over 850,000 South Sudanese refugees who live either in refugee settlements or in Ugandan villages and towns.