Red Cross staff member killed in South Sudan road ambush

[Elisabeth Janaina]

Red Cross staff member killed in South Sudan road ambush
File photo: Workers unload a truck during an ICRC distribution. (ICRC)
File photo: Workers unload a truck during an ICRC distribution. (ICRC)

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Saturday
one of its staffers was killed as he delivered aid to the needy
civilians in South Sudan.

The ICRC said in a statement that Lukudu Kennedy Laki Emmanuel was
killed when a convoy of nine trucks and a four-wheel-drive vehicle was
shot at by unidentified gunmen while returning from Western Equatoria
on Friday.

“We are shaken and distraught by the killing of our colleague who was
traveling in a convoy of vehicles which were clearly marked with the
Red Cross emblem,” François Stamm, ICRC’s head of delegation in Juba,
said in a statement.

The organization called on all those involved in the conflict to
protect the civilian population and to ensure that humanitarian
workers can perform their duties.

Kennedy joined the ICRC in 2014 as a truck driver in the Juba Delegation.

Since the outbreak of civil war 2013, at least 82 humanitarian workers
have been killed, including 17 this year, most of them South Sudanese,
according to the United Nations.