Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the recent kidnapping of an aid worker at Malakal, Upper Nile State, South Sudan’s army said.

A World Food Programme employee was kidnapped by gunmen at the government-controlled Malakal airfield on October 16, six days after three United Nations staff members were kidnapped in the same place by gunmen in and out of uniform. Two were later released but one remains unaccounted for.

SPLA-Juba spokesperson Philip Aguer said there is an open investigation into the three arrested suspects.

“The investigation is already going on,” Aguer told UN Radio Miraya. “[It] will indicate what happened to that staff member of WFP.”

“We don’t even know the whereabouts of this staff of the UN who was kidnapped,” he continued. “We wish the person will be safe but that depends on the investigation of these three suspects.”

Separately, Aguer told Radio Miraya that an army colonel and another senior officer were arrested in connection with the Juba Massacre of mid-December 2013.

“Arresting a colonel who is a senior officer or captain, it indicates that the army is serious about accountability and will send a signal that we are a system and rules of engagement of the army is specified,” he said. “So this is a signal to anybody that is given an assignment in any operation how to behave, and I believe this is the way forward in terms of achieving professionality for the army that we are building.”

File photo: WFP operations to provide food assistance to people in Pibor County, Jonglei, July 2013 (WFP/George Fominyen)