Ambassador Chris Trott. File photo

The United Kingdom ambassador to South Sudan has condemned the attack on a convoy of the Vice President Dr. James Wani Igga by armed opposition group led by General Thomas Cirilo, which he says violated the ceasefire agreement.

Last week, a Toyota land-cruiser carrying bodyguards of Dr. Wani Igga fell into an ambush along Juba-Lobonok road.

Six officers were killed in the incident.

The National Salvation Front claimed responsibility for the attack, alleging that it was meant to foil alleged spying and intelligence gathering on their defensive positions.

But the SSPDF has dismissed such claims.

According to the peace monitoring body, there have been ongoing clashes between the NAS forces and both SSPDF and SPLM/A-IO in Central Equatoria as well as Western Equatoria.

The UK Ambassador to South Sudan described the attack on the convoy on Juba-Lobonok road as a violation of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement.

Christopher Trott says the holdout armed groups need to be included in the Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring and Verification Mechanism (CTSAMVM).

He believes this will enable the body to hold violators accountable for their actions.

“All signatories although they signed the Rome Declaration and they signed the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, they are not fully part of the CTSAMVM and so CTSAMVM is not able to look into incidents like what happened this week, which we condemned,” Trott said on Wednesday.

“There shouldn’t be an attack in this country. So we need to see them brought into the process, so the moment there is a violation of any of these agreements, then CTSAMVM can give us a report on what is happening so we understand who is responsible, what happened and we can hold them accountable.”