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The speaker of South Sudan’s Western Equatoria state parliament, James Bage, was killed in an ambush late Friday, according to State Information Minister Charles Kasanga.

Bage was shot eight kilometers (five miles) from the state capital, Yambio, Kasanga said by phone from Juba, the national capital. The attack took place at about 8:30 p.m. as he was returning from a visit to his village, Kasanga said. The country’s information minister Michael Makuei Lueth couldn’t immediately confirm the incident when reached by phone.

Western Equatoria state has recently witnessed clashes between cattle-herders and farmers. The state leadership was changed on Aug. 16, with Joseph Bangasi Bakasoro removed from the governorship and replaced with Patrick Dominic Zamoi in a decree described by the government as a normal reshuffle.