Red Cross Driver Killed In South Sudan Ambush

A Red Cross driver was killed when unknown militants attacked an aid convoy in South Sudan, the organisation said Saturday.

Lukudu Kennedy Laki Emmanuel was shot dead Friday when gunmen ambushed the nine-vehicle convoy transporting humanitarian supplies in the war-torn country's Western Equatoria region.

"We are shaken and distraught by the killing of our colleague who was travelling in a convoy of vehicles which were clearly marked with the Red Cross emblem," said Francois Stamm, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Juba.

"In addition, all parties to the conflict in the area had been duly notified about our presence." The aid agency issued a fresh call for militants to refrain from attacking humanitarian workers.

South Sudan's civil war erupted in December 2013 just two years after it obtained independence from Sudan, when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup.

Thousands of people have been killed by the violence, which plunged part of the country into famine earlier this year. Some four million have been displaced, according to UN figures.