Two senior officials allied to South Sudan’s opposition leader, Riek Machar, were briefly detained at Blue House in Juba before being taken to an unknown location, a former detainee said.
Dong Samuel and Aggrey Idri Ezibon, both supporters of South Sudan’s main opposition group, went missing from the Kenyan capital on 23 and 24 January 2017.
Retired South African colonel William Endley, who was released from prison in Juba, told Voice of America’s South Sudan in Focus programme on Wednesday that he saw Aggrey Idri Izbon in the National Security Service Headquarters last year.
Endley formerly served as an adviser to Machar, the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLA-IO), said: “Aggrey and Dong were in the National Security in the Blue House. But I did not see Dong, he was kept downstairs. I only saw Aggrey."
"They were taken away on 27 January 2017 and up to date we haven’t heard or seen anything about them. Other people saw Dong but I did not see him, and people saw them being removed, “he added.
“Aggrey and Dong were well-known, so the minute they were brought, they were seen by many other people in the detention.”
Earlier this year, the international rights group Amnesty International said it received credible information that the two opposition officials were removed from Blue House in Juba on the night of 27 January 2017.
On 1 October, the president’s spokesman, Ateny Wek Ateny, told Radio Tamazuj that all detainees had been released.
Endley and opposition leader’s spokesperson James Gatdet Dak were released in Juba on 3 November after a presidential pardon. In September, President Salva Kiir, Machar’s SPLM-IO group and other opposition groups signed a peace agreement.