At least six people were killed and others injured in several attacks along the Juba-Nimule road in South Sudan on Friday morning, cutting off traffic on the main route between Uganda and South Sudan.
An eyewitness in Loa in the Pageri Administrative Area told Radio Tamazuj that he saw the bodies of six people, including some women, after gunmen opened fire on a number of vehicles heading to Juba on Friday morning.
Nine others were injured and two fuel tankers exploded and burned. “There were two tankers that were shot at and caught fire,” the witness said.
The source confirmed that the incidents shut down normal vehicle traffic between Juba and Nimule. The attacks come just days after a collision of two buses in almost the same location, in which at least seven people were killed.
“I saw the dead bodies, I saw six dead bodies,” the eyewitness told Radio Tamazuj, adding that the bodies were found in different groups. “Those are the ones that I saw, but I don’t know if there were others taken to the hospital, for example, so the number could be greater.”
Juba officials were not available for comment.
The Central Equatoria region where the national capital Juba is located has experienced a surge in violence since the breakdown of peace implementation last July. A number of loosely linked armed groups operating under the umbrella of SPLM/A-IO are operating in Central Equatoria, including in Yei County, Morobo County, Lainya County, and along the Nimule-Juba road.