South Sudan rebels on Monday blamed the government for the deaths of six aid workers in the country, saying they don’t have forces in the area where the killings took place.
The murder of the six is the deadliest assault on humanitarian staff in the country in the three-year civil war.
The United Nations said the six were killed as they drove from the capital Juba to the town of Pibor through remote territory largely under government control but fought over by both sides in the conflict and plagued by militias and other armed groups.
“We don’t have forces in that area. Instead it’s the government forces and militias who control that area,” Reuters reports the spokesman for the rebel SPLM-IO forces, Lam Paul Gabriel, to say
The United Nations did not say which organization the aid workers belonged to, or their nationalities, but called on “all those in positions of power” in South Sudan to stop the violence.
At least 79 aid workers have been killed since President Salva Kiir’s government forces clashed with those of his former deputy Riek Machar in December 2013.
Thousands of people have also been killed in the country, with hundreds of thousands fleeing to neighbouring countries.
United Nations has listed South Sudan as Africa’s biggest refugee crisis, calling upon leaders in the country to stop the violence.
