---
title: "Two UN peacekeepers killed in an ambush in Jonglei state"
description: "Three more peacekeepers, two South Sudanese police officers and two civilian staff were wounded when a patrol heading for Pajut was attacked. UN figures record more than 450 attacks on humanitarian workers in South Sudan in the first seven months of this year."
category: "World"
category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/world
author: "Liam Fitzgerald"
published: 2026-08-25T07:36:02.000Z
updated: 2026-08-25T07:36:02.000Z
canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/two-un-peacekeepers-killed-in-an-ambush-in-jonglei-state
tags: ["south-sudan", "united-nations", "peacekeeping", "jonglei", "africa"]
---
# Two UN peacekeepers killed in an ambush in Jonglei state

Three more peacekeepers, two South Sudanese police officers and two civilian staff were wounded when a patrol heading for Pajut was attacked. UN figures record more than 450 attacks on humanitarian workers in South Sudan in the first seven months of this year.

Two United Nations peacekeepers were killed and three wounded when a patrol travelling toward Pajut, in Jonglei state, was ambushed in South Sudan, [Al Jazeera reports](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/24/ambush-in-south-sudan-kills-peacekeeping-troops). Two South Sudanese police officers and two civilian mission staff were also wounded. The attack was reported on Monday.

The UN Mission in South Sudan, UNMISS, did not disclose the nationalities or identities of those killed. It sent a Quick Reaction Force to secure the area and assist the response.

Anita Kiki Gbeho, who heads the mission, said: "Such deadly violence targeting UNMISS personnel, who are serving to support peace in South Sudan, is unacceptable."

## Why a patrol to Pajut was a risk

Jonglei is where the collapse of South Sudan's political settlement has been most visible.

The 2018 power-sharing agreement between President Salva Kiir and the opposition leader Riek Machar has broken down, and fighting intensified in December when opposition forces took government outposts in the state. A peacekeeping patrol moving through contested ground in those conditions is exposed in a way it would not be if the agreement still held.

No party has been blamed for the ambush in this account, and we are not going to infer one from the geography.

## The pattern the numbers show

UN data records more than 450 attacks on humanitarian workers in South Sudan between January and July this year, with 36 workers killed.

That is roughly two attacks every day, over seven months, on people whose protection under international law is supposed to be the least contested thing on a battlefield. Peacekeepers and aid workers are not the same category, but the figure describes the environment both operate in, and it is the context in which Monday's ambush is unexceptional rather than aberrant.

The practical consequence is narrower than the moral one. When movement becomes dangerous, missions reduce patrols and agencies restrict travel, and the areas that lose access are the ones already worst served.

## What we could not establish

We could not establish the nationalities of the dead, the exact date and location of the ambush, who carried it out, the condition of the wounded, or whether any investigation has begun. We verified this account from a single publication.

## Sources

- [Ambush in South Sudan kills peacekeeping troops](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/24/ambush-in-south-sudan-kills-peacekeeping-troops)