At least one AVSI staff was critically shot on the head, three others brutally beaten up and valuables, including iPhones, estimated at 500,000 South Sudan pounds, stolen from them in a road robbery in Wulu County of Lakes State.
AVSI is a non-profit organization working with communities in South Sudan to build resilience in the face of poverty.
Police spokesperson Elijah Mabor Makuac told Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday evening that the incident happened on Tuesday.
Makuac said that the injured officials of the AVSI organization were receiving treatment at the Wulu County Primary Healthcare Center (PHCC)
“Yesterday [Tuesday] at around 2:0PM 6 criminals with 5 guns and one club intercepted a team of staff of AVSI, who were going to Gurmar for an assessment and beat them up and robbed them of valuables,” he said.
He said the robbers also confiscated the keys of a motorbike from the pocket of one of their victims.
“The AVSI staff managed to escape from the robbers back to Wulu County, where they are currently receiving treatment,” said Makuac.
The chairperson of Civil Society Network in Lakes State (CiSON), Angelina Adhel, said that she learnt about the incident from one of the staff from the AVSI organization.
Adhel condemned the incident, describing it as a threat to the community and the humanitarian workers.
“The direct beneficiaries of humanitarian services are the community. Such acts give a very bad image of us as a community of Lakes State and the government,” she said.
Across South Sudan, humanitarian workers, mostly national staff, face severe constraints while trying to reach people in need: armed violence, bureaucratic impediments, operational interference, targeted violence, and threats, and looting of assets.
Incidents against aid workers continue in most parts of the country even as humanitarian needs increase.