According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and local authorities, three aid workers and 11 civilians were killed in early January in attacks by gunmen in South Sudan.
“In the first days of the year, three South Sudanese aid workers who were helping others paid the highest price with their lives,” Peter Van der Auweraert, OCHA’s head of mission in the African country stated.
Two of them were victims of an attack by armed men, which left others dead, on January 2 in a village in the oil-rich Abyei administrative area, the UN agency said.
A total of 14 people, including women and children, died in the attack, which was attributed to youths from neighbouring Twic county, Abyei spokesman Ajak Deng said.
The death of the third aid worker occurred the same week while monitoring humanitarian supplies in the east-central state of Jonglei.
These three deaths are in addition to the nine killed last year and five in 2021.
OCHA urged the authorities to strengthen the protection of its staff in this oil-rich country, which is among the poorest in the world.
 and local authorities, three aid workers and 11 civilians were killed in early January in attacks by gunmen in South Sudan.){kind=link}