Three people working for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) have been missing in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State since last week.
George Fominyen, spokesman for WFP in Juba, said that the three workers departed from Malakal in a WFP convoy in the early morning hours of 1 April. They traveled northward toward Melut to distribute food there.
Fighting broke out on that day in Lul and Akoka along the route that the convoy was traveling.
“Communication with the convoy, which had three persons, was lost. We have not been able to reach our colleagues since then,” said Fominyen.
He disclosed that the three aid workers are all South Sudanese nationality and they are drivers.
The WFP spokesman told Radio Tamazuj that the aid organization is “deeply concerned about their safety and security” and is working tirelessly to ensure that the missing workers are found.
UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian affairs meanwhile also reported that in another recent incident two other aid workers and 15 drivers of contracted commercial trucks transporting 130 metric tonnes of food supplies to Rom were detained at Khor-Adar for hours.
“They were later released but one truck driver was commandeered to Akoka,” reads an OCHA report.
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