By Edna-UCLIQ
On Tuesday morning, gunmen attacked a long-distance bus plying from Juba in South Sudan to Kampala in Uganda.
The South Sudanese army confirmed that one Ugandan man had been killed and several others either wounded or feared kidnapped.
Images from the scene show the bus engulfed with thick black smoke billowing into the air.
Army spokesperson Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang said the attackers struck 80 kilometers south of Juba, accusing a rebel group, National Salvation Front, led by former deputy chief of staff Gen Thomas Cirilo Swaka.
The rebel group, NAS, operates in parts of Central Equatoria state and has declined to ink the 2018 peace deal aimed at ending years of civil conflict. The group has yet to comment on the attack on the bus.
In an interview, Gen. Koang said eight people were injured, while another seven passengers remained missing, reportedly taken away by the attackers.
“Our forces engaged with the attackers, and they have since retreated,” Gen. Koang told Radio Tamazuj.
This is not the first attack on the Juba-Nimule Road. In August 2022, 11 passengers were killed when gunmen ambushed a vehicle on the same route.
A year earlier, two South Sudanese Catholic nuns were murdered on the highway.
Incidents of this nature have demonstrated how fragile the young nation of South Sudan still remains, despite a peace deal, in particular along its southern routes.
