A long-distance bus was attacked by gunmen in South Sudan on a highway south of the capital, Juba, leaving at least one person dead and others feared abducted, the military said.
A passenger car, heading to Uganda’s capital, Kampala, was targeted on Tuesday morning.
Images from the scene show flames engulfing the interior of the bus and black smoke billowing into the sky.
Despite a peace deal to end years of civil war in South Sudan, insecurity remains rampant in many parts of the country.
Army spokesman Maj General Lul Ruai Koang told the BBC that one person, a Ugandan, was killed and eight others were injured. He went on to say that seven others are missing and are thought to have been kidnapped.
Gen Koang blamed a rebel group, the National Salvation Front (NAS), for the attack in an area 80km (50 miles) from the capital.
The group, led by former deputy chief of staff Gen Thomas Cirilo Swaka, operates in areas south of Juba, as well as other parts of the Central Equatoria region.
The NAS, which refused to sign the 2018 peace accord, did not comment on the bus attack.
Earlier, a military spokesman told Radio Tamazuj that soldiers were sent to the scene to fight the attackers.
There were other incidents of violence on the road connecting Juba with the southern border town of Nimule.
In August 2022, 11 passengers – South Sudanese and Ugandans – were killed and many others injured when the car they were traveling in was attacked by unknown armed men.
And a year earlier, two South Sudanese Catholic nuns were killed on the same highway as they were returning to Juba.
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