At least 9 passengers including a woman and two children were killed and 24 injured in an ambush at Khor Nyigar area north of Upper Nile state capital Malakal on Saturday evening.
Several eyewitnesses living the UN base in Malakal said the incident took place after a vehicle moved from the gate of the base toward Renk town around 7:00 pm. They said the vehicle was carrying civilians including children.
Survivors and relatives report that at least two women, a man, and two children remain missing after the incident.
One of the survivors who preferred not to be named told Radio Tamazuj that the attack involved an explosive device.
“We couldn’t see the perpetrators because we run away after the bombing,” she said.
She said the attack appeared to target the Shilluk tribe because most of the passengers were from that ethnic group.
Upper Nile state information minister Gatluak Peter Hoth confirmed the incident and accused forces under rebel general Johnson Olony, who is Shilluk, of carrying out the attack.
The Shilluk community has not had uniform allegiances throughout South Sudan’s ongoing civil war. Some members are loyal to the government, others including Olony rebelled, while still others have remained neutral.