Two people have been killed in an ambush on a vehicle carrying delegates of South Sudan's ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in Western Equatoria State. Unidentified gunmen attacked the vehicle on Thursday evening at Miri Loko village in Mundri East County, as the delegates travelled from Lui towards Mundri Town after taking part in SPLM party primaries, according to the Office of the Commissioner of Mundri East.

Source: The Radio Community

The state information minister, Noah Issa, confirmed the deaths in an interview with Eye Radio, QNC News reported. The primaries are part of the SPLM's preparations — the party of President Salva Kiir — for general elections due in December 2026, which are set to be the first national elections held in South Sudan since independence.

Source: QNC News / Eye Radio

A life in South Sudanese media

Veronica Lucy Gordon began her journalism career in 1983, worked with the South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation, co-founded the Association of Media Women in South Sudan (AMWISS) in 2006 to promote women's participation in the media, and in 2014 became the first woman elected deputy chairperson of the Association for Media Development in South Sudan, The Radio Community reported. She was an aspiring candidate on the SPLM party list for the National Legislative Assembly; QNC News reported she had recently been nominated to stand for a seat reserved for women.

Condemnation, and a second scare in Tambura

The Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS) condemned the killing and called for an urgent investigation. "We strongly condemn the attack and demand an urgent probe from the authorities concerned," UJOSS Secretary-General Majak Daniel Kuany Alier said in a statement issued on Friday. Edmund Yakani, executive director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), also condemned the attack as a human rights violation, saying disputes should be settled through dialogue, not "through the barrel of the gun".

Yakani said the attack was the first of its kind during the SPLM primaries in the Equatoria region, and warned that violence against political delegates could undermine the electoral process as South Sudan prepares for general elections scheduled for December 2026. Commissioner Bakiet called on security authorities to investigate the circumstances of the attack and to ensure the injured receive medical care.

The Mundri shooting was the second security scare around the SPLM primaries in Western Equatoria this week. On Wednesday, gunfire near a voting centre in Tambura County forced 71 delegates to flee without casting their ballots, although nobody was hurt; state officials blamed that shooting on suspected fighters of the SPLA-IO, the country's main armed opposition movement, QNC News reported — an attribution the reports did not independently confirm.

South Sudan has repeatedly postponed its first elections since independence in 2011, and the December poll is seen as a central test of the peace deal that ended the civil war. Parties are choosing candidates through primaries across the country, and the Mundri ambush has deepened concern about the safety of delegates, candidates and voters as that process continues.