In this social-media age, news travels fast but not everything you read online is real – This is evident on South Sudan social media where anyone can make any ill-intentioned post on Facebook that would go viral in minutes and cause panic among the population.

On many occasions rebel affiliated websites like Nyamilpedia, Upper Nile Times and others have written articles that have provoked a respond from government to deny the allegations when concerns are raise by members of the public.

Most recent example being the alleged defections to rebels by IGP Pieng Deng Kuol and former SPLA chief of staff James Hoth Mai which were later proven to be a mere propaganda.

Since the outbreak of war in the country in December 2013, many unreliable foreign based websites which run unconfirmed news have emerged. Some of these websites are run by foreigners whose aim is to get hits for their websites and have them earn cash through Google adsense. The most notable of such websites is Chimpreports run by Ugandans.

And some other websites run by exiled South Sudanese whose purpose is to cause panic and instill fear in the people with an aim to demonise the government in order to lure more supporters from the government to their ranks. South Sudanese should be mindful about such websites.

This guide is prepared by Hot in Juba’s John Masura to make peace loving South Sudanese people at home and abroad aware of the reliable and unreliable South Sudanese online news sources.

Here is the list of trusted online news sources in South Sudan: