One person, a Kenyan, was killed, while several others were injured during a sudden attack on the vehicle they were travelling in from Juba to Maridi, by a gang of unknown bandits.
The foreign civil engineer who was working on a school project for Morobo County, in the Central Equatorial State of South Sudan, was killed during a deadly ambush launched onto him and fellow travellers on early Thursday morning of July 31, 2025.
South Sudan authorities confirm the death of a Kenyan engineer James Karigi in a morning ambush. According to Morobo County Commissioner Charles Data Bullen, the attackers torched the car, and government forces responded swiftly, killing one of the attackers identified as a known Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLA-IO) fighter.
Two people, including the driver, are still missing.
Reports from local officials in South Sudan, confirm that the incident occurred along the section of the road linking Morobo and Kaya, but the motives behind the attack remain mysterious.
During the morning ambush, a Toyota Landcruiser Series 79, Pickup was reduced to ashes as the gang of unknown assailants waylaid the truck, killing one person and injuring three other passengers along the Juba to Maridi Highway.
Officials did not divulge the names of the other victims.
According to an eyewitness, after stopping the car, the attackers killed the driver, beat up the passengers and burned down the Landcruiser pickup truck.
It is not known if the attackers stole anything from the vehicle before reducing it to ashes.
One Alex Emmanuel, who claims to be a relative of the deceased, revealed later that the car had left Juba early in the morning heading towards Maridi when it got ambushed by some armed men who at first were thought to be highway robbers but later on it was stated that the gang of attackers were among the notorious South Sudanese rebels.
Meanwhile the earliest report stated that “An early morning ambush occurred today, Thursday, around 6:00 AM, at a place known as Mani’bu, about 8.5 miles from the Maridi town!”
“The driver, a civil engineer, was killed on the spot, one passenger was seriously injured, while two others survived the attack escaping with minor injuries,” he added.
The Tanzania Times tried to contact the local county authorities in South Sudan but without much success.