Two South Sudanese aid workers employed by international organizations were killed since Thursday in separate incidents in Jonglei and Unity states.
One victim was killed at a refugee camp in Adjuong Thok and the other at an UN base in Akobo. Statements by the NGOs concerned as well as circumstances of their death suggest ethnically motivated killings.
“The entire Solidarités International team is in shock following the probable assassination of one of our South Sudanese team members at Ajong Tock in South Sudan on December 21st, 2013,” read a statement from the organization.
The charity has been working in the country since 2006 carrying out water project, hygiene and sanitation work. All these projects have been suspended due to the sudden upsurge of violence in the country during the last week.
International Medical Corps (IMC), which supports a county hospital in Akobo, expressed “great sadness” in losing a staff member in the previously reported attack on the UN base in the town.
He was a clinical health worker who sought refuge at the UN base in the town when it was overrun by armed militia. The UN estimates that at least 20 civilians were killed in the attack, and two UN peacekeepers.
IMC in a statement on Friday said that it would continue to try to deliver “lifesaving services to the people of South Sudan, including maternal health, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, food security, and water and sanitation.”
But it noted that “the scale of the crises underway in South Sudan at present means that all non-essential staff are now being evacuated.”
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