Ugandan and South Sudanese troops exchanged fire in a remote, contested border area, killing soldiers from both countries and at least one civilian, according to officials and local reporting. Military leaders agreed to an immediate ceasefire so the latest confrontation could be investigated.
Ugandan military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Felix Kulayigye said three South Sudanese soldiers were killed when Ugandan troops retaliated for the death of a Ugandan soldier two days earlier. A local official in South Sudan's Central Equatoria state, Wani Jackson Mule, gave a different toll, saying five South Sudanese soldiers' bodies had been received. Daily Monitor reported that five members of the South Sudan People's Defence Forces, one Uganda People's Defence Force soldier and one civilian died.
The accounts also differed on where the encounter occurred and how it began. Kulayigye said South Sudanese troops had moved farther into Ugandan territory in the West Nile area, established a position and declined to leave. Mule described the Ugandan action as a surprise attack in territory that South Sudan regards as its own. Neither version resolved the central disagreement over the border line.
South Sudanese military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang said commanders from the two countries had accepted an immediate halt to fighting. The pause was intended to allow an inquiry into the incident, rather than settle the territorial issue itself.
Parts of the Uganda-South Sudan frontier have remained disputed for years. Officials created a joint border-demarcation committee to work through competing claims, and representatives from the two sides had previously said they expected a final decision in 2027. Sporadic confrontations have occurred, but direct fighting between the two militaries has been uncommon.
The clash was particularly notable because Uganda and South Sudan are security partners. Ugandan forces had been deployed inside South Sudan in support of President Salva Kiir's government against forces loyal to Vice President Riek Machar. Ugandan special forces were stationed in the capital, Juba, and elsewhere in the country, making the border exchange an unusual rupture between allied armed forces.
The deaths also placed pressure on commanders to prevent local uncertainty from widening into a confrontation between national forces. The immediate ceasefire reduced the risk of another round of fire, but the contradictory casualty figures and rival descriptions of the location highlighted the need for a joint factual inquiry. The longer-term risk remained tied to the unfinished demarcation process: without an agreed boundary on the ground, movements that one military sees as domestic deployment can be interpreted by the other as an incursion.
