A private security guard using an AK-47 machinegun killed two and wounded three of his colleagues in Juba.
The incident has prompted the Government to halt the use of arms by private security companies until a legal policy is enacted.The shooting took place Tuesday morning at the staff quarters of Veterans Security Services (VSS) along the Yei road.
The shooter was a VSS guard who was handing in his gun at the end of his shift.
Eddie Fanika, VSS country manager, told CRN he suspects that the shooter committed suicide after the onslaught.
VSS was formed within the Disarmament, Demobilized and Reintegration Programme to provide employment to demobilized soldiers and 90 percent of VSS guards are former soldiers.
National Interior Minister Alison Manani Magaya said the process of a legal policy for issuance of arms and how to use them is still pending in a draft bill soon to be presented to the National Assembly.
He said he suspended the issuance of licenses allowing private security companies to use small arms until the bill is ratified into a law.
Mr Manani says VSS was allowed to use weapons without a legal framework in response to international organizations calling for armed protection.
Early this year, a shot-out by security forces using a truck mounted machine gun killed 37 people in Lakes state; two months later; eight people were killed during a tribal shooting in the outskirts of Juba over land issues.
South Sudan is still struggling to reinstate security after over two decades of a civil war and many civilians still possess illegal weapons despite multiple disarmament exercises.