Two United Nations peacekeepers were killed in an ambush in South Sudan. Three other peacekeepers were wounded, along with two South Sudanese police officers and two civilian staff members of the mission.
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said in a statement Monday that gunmen ambushed a patrol as it was moving toward Pajut, in Jonglei state. The identities and nationalities of the deceased have not been released.
According to UNMISS, a quick reaction force has been deployed to secure the area and support the emergency response. Mission chief Anita Kiki Gbeho stressed: “Deadly violence directed at UNMISS personnel, who are serving to support peace in South Sudan, is unacceptable.”
Attacks on aid workers have increased this year as the risk of full-scale civil war grows, but violence targeting peacekeepers is rare. According to UN data, from January to July, there were over 450 attacks on personnel and property of humanitarian organizations, more than double the figure for the same period last year. At least 36 aid workers and contractors have been killed, surpassing the 31 recorded in all of 2025.
The current violence comes amid months of clashes between government troops and forces loyal to opposition leader Riek Machar. Machar, a former vice president, was suspended from office last year and is now under house arrest, facing treason charges he says are politically motivated.
The 2018 power-sharing agreement between Machar and President Salva Kiir has collapsed. South Sudan is approaching a full-scale civil war—the very situation the deal was signed eight years ago to prevent. Fighting escalated in December when opposition forces seized government outposts in Jonglei. The government has responded with airstrikes and ground offensives, while insisting it remains committed to the 2018 agreement.
The United States, for its part, continues to push Kiir and Machar toward dialogue, earlier this year calling for “urgent action to preserve peace and mitigate the risk of civil war through an immediate return to dialogue among the parties to the 2018 peace agreement.”
