VietJoy

JUBA - Two aid workers were killed, another wounded and three others went missing after unknown gunmen ambushed a vehicle belonging to an international NGO in South Sudan’s Unity state Monday night, according to local officials.

Workers from the British charity Tearfund were leaving the village of Yuai when they were attacked, said Mabil Peter Kot, acting secretary general of the former Bieh state, which is now part of Unity state.

“The Tearfund went to Yuai to do their activities. When they were coming back from Yuai in the evening, they were coming to Piri. Then they fell into an ambush. The attackers fired at the car of the Tearfund. A lady was shot and died on the spot and another man was shot and died near the vehicle,” Kot told VOA's South Sudan in Focus.

Kot said the whereabouts of the other three aid workers in the vehicle, including the driver, is not known.  He said two other unarmed people were killed in a separate attack in the same area.

Tearfund is a Christian relief and development organization formerly known as The Evangelical Alliance Relief Fund.

A Tearfund worker in Jonglei state, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she is not authorized to speak to the media, said the staff was delivering humanitarian assistance to locals in Yuai when they were attacked.

Emmi Antinoja, head of communications at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in South Sudan, said the agency is still gathering all the details about the attack.

“I am not able to comment anything on that until we find the full story,” Antinoja told South Sudan in Focus.

Last month one aid worker was killed when a humanitarian vehicle belonging to an international NGO was ambushed along the Pibor-Gumuruk road.

Prior to Monday's attack, at least 116 aid workers had been killed in South Sudan since the start of the country's conflict in December 2013, according to United Nations report released last week.  The vast majority of victims have been South Sudanese nationals.

South Sudan's leaders formed a new transitional unity government on Feb. 22 in hopes of ending the conflict for good and stabilizing the country.

As part of the deal, President Salva Kiir agreed to reduce the number of states from 32 to the country's original 10, plus three administrative areas.