Veteran journalist Veronica Lucy Gordon, a co-founder of the Association of Media Women in South Sudan (AMWISS), has been killed in an ambush on a vehicle carrying Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) delegates travelling from Lui in Mundri East County to Mundri West in Western Equatoria State.
Gordon was among two people killed when unidentified gunmen
attacked the vehicle on Thursday evening in Miri Loko village, according to the
Office of the Commissioner of Mundri East.
The Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS) condemned
the killing and called for an urgent investigation.
“We strongly condemn the attack and demand an urgent probe
from the authorities concerned,” UJOSS Secretary-General Majak Daniel Kuany
Alier said in a statement issued on Friday.
Mundri East County Caretaker Commissioner Matthew Daite
Bakiet said the vehicle was travelling from Lui to Mundri Town after SPLM party
primaries when it came under attack.
The second person killed was identified as Justin Hakim, an
SPLM member. Two others, Jackson Sebit Boaza and Charles John, were injured and
taken to Lui Hospital for treatment.
Bakiet said the vehicle was carrying eight delegates, adding
that the remaining occupants, including the driver, escaped into the bush and
later reached Mundri Town safely.
He called on security authorities to investigate the
circumstances surrounding the attack and ensure the injured receive medical
care.
Edmund Yakani, executive director of the Community
Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), also condemned the attack,
describing it as a human rights violation and a crime punishable by law.
Yakani said political and ideological disagreements should
be addressed through dialogue rather than armed violence, particularly as South
Sudan prepares for general elections scheduled for December 2026.
“It is bad to resolve your dispute through the barrel of the
gun. Better through dialogue,” Yakani said in a recorded statement.
He said the attack was the first of its kind during the SPLM
primaries in the Equatoria region, warning that violence against political
delegates could undermine the electoral process.
Gordon was an aspiring candidate on the SPLM party list for
the National Legislative Assembly. She previously worked with the South Sudan
Broadcasting Corporation and began her journalism career in 1983. She
co-founded AMWISS in 2006 to promote women’s participation in the media and
later became the first woman elected deputy chairperson of the Association for
Media Development in South Sudan in 2014.
The motive for the attack and the identities of those responsible had not been established.