At least three people were killed and four others wounded in an ambush along the Juba-Yei road on Tuesday, police said.

The incident occurred when a passenger vehicle was ambushed around Lokurbang in Lainya County of Central Equatoria State.

Yoasa Lujang Kamba, the police commissioner for Yei River County, told Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday that two South Sudanese nationals and a Somali trader were among those killed.

“Two South Sudanese and one Somali national were killed during the road ambush. The two South Sudanese were Emmanuel Sebit and a lady only identified as Susan while the Somali national was identified as Musa Mohamed. These people were not killed by unknown armed men, but by the NAS [National Salvation Front] group,” he said.

The police officer, however, said the security situation along the road returned to normal after government forces were deployed.

For his part, NAS spokesperson Suba Samuel Manase denied their group’s involvement in the attack on the Juba-Yei road. However, he admitted that clashes occurred between NAS and government forces recently.

 “We are aware that there is war going on and military operations in areas of Loka, Lokurbang and the outskirts of Lainya and these areas are being controlled by government forces. We have issued a statement warning civilians not to move on the roads because we knew there were going to be attacks on the road,” Suba explained.

Army spokesperson Lul Ruai Koang could not immediately be reached to comment on the matter.