Missing Aid Workers: World Vision International workers go missing in South Sudan

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02:08

Seven aid workers have gone missing in South Sudan, near Yangri, close to the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The group, including one Ugandan national, were working for World Vision International. CGTN'S Isabel Nakirya has more from Kampala.

ISABEL NAKIRYA KAMPALA, UGANDA "The UN Office for Coordination of humanitarian affairs says the seven aid workers were traveling from Tambura state to Yambio in South Sudan when they were intercepted by gunmen.

The staff members were traveling in a 4 vehicle convoy, two of the cars were clearly marked as belonging to the charity World Vision.

A third vehicle was a personal car belonging to a World Vision staffer traveling with the same convoy.

The United Nations has condemned the kidnapping, saying attacks on aid workers harm humanitarian efforts in South Sudan."

MARK LOWCOCK, UNDER SECRETARY-GENERAL HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS, UN "This is a recent deterioration in the situation which wasn't something we were having to deal with until relatively recently, but it's part of a wider piece of violence against aid workers which doesn't attract the response it needs to form the government especially the government. They'll need to do something about it."

ISABEL NAKIRYA KAMPALA, UGANDA "The identities of the gunmen are unknown and it's not known where the aid workers were taken.

Those missing include a Ugandan National working as a conflict consultant with World Vision and is also a leader of the Acholi cultural institution, in northern Uganda.

The Ugandan army says the government will speak to the administration in Juba to secure his release.

The south Sudan NGO forum says there's a been a rise in the number of attacks on aid workers and says it is working to have the group freed. ISABEL NAKIRYA, CGTN, KAMPALA."