One person has been shot dead and four others wounded in a road ambush in Torit.
The victim was among five passengers traveling in a Toyota Land cruiser heading from Lopit village in Kapoeta, registered to the Eastern Equatoria state government.
Sources say a gunfire exchange that lasted 30 minutes ensued between the attackers and security forces. The injured include three men and one woman.
Governor Louis Lobong’s press secretary, Aliandro Lotok, confirmed the attack and said, “This evening (Thursday), there was a vehicle coming from Lopit land and went it reached Hoss River, a huge number of Monyiemiji shot at it killing one person on the spot. They shot the driver in the head and currently, there are four injured people receiving treatment at Torit referral hospital.”
He added, “The government condemns this incident and urges the people of Eastern Equatoria, particularly the people of Torit East, to desist from causing conflicts, desist from attacking innocent people on the road. This is a government road and nobody from these villages should just come and kill people.”
Among those injured is US-based Professor James Okwaramoi who came to visit his family in Lohobohobo village in Lopit East.
It will be recalled that in late March, there was a string of deadly road attacks in South Sudan, including one on a governor’s convoy returning from the scene of an earlier attack, to have left nearly 30 people dead. A short time after the governor’s convoy left the camp that period, to return to the state capital Torit the evening the last Monday in March, gunmen attacked the convoy, killing two people and injuring three others.
State officials accused National Salvation Front (NAS) rebels led by Thomas Cirillo of carrying out the attacks in March this year, but NAS spokesperson Suba Samuel denied his group is responsible for the recent deadly attacks.
It remains unclear who is responsible for this ambush.
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