The South Sudanese government announced on Wednesday that it has received assurances from the rebel leadership that they would release Isaiah Chol Aruai, the chairman of the South Sudan bureau of statistics, after he was abducted off a humanitarian aircraft.
Aruai, who also is the chairman of the Kongor Community in Juba, was taken off a humanitarian plane along with aid workers Jacob Aleer Longar and Mading Akueth when the plane landed at a rebel-held airstrop during a flight from Panyangor, Twic East County, Jonglei, to Juba.
“Contacts have been made and the rebels’ leadership has given assurances that comrade Isaiah Chol and his colleagues will be released today,” Cabinet Affairs Minister Martin Elia Lomuro said Wednesday.
Lomuro said that the aircraft was returning from Twic County after Aruai went there as a government representative to witness the inauguration of Kongor Diocese in Panyagor. They were on their way back to Juba on a humanitarian plane operated by the United Nations World Food Programme when the aircraft made a stop at Jiech in the Lou Nuer territory.
Rebel forces there took the government officials off the humanitarian airplane and took them into their custody, accusing them of spying. The plane was released and allowed to return to Juba.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Michael Makuei Lueth announced on state television that on Tuesday that the government had contacted the rebel leader Riek Machar and his chief negotiator Taban Deng Gai to inform them about the development and to ask that the officials be released on humanitarian grounds.
Lueth also asked the family members of the abductees and the general public not to panic, saying efforts were being exerted to secure their release from captivity.
Former government chief whip in the national Assembly, Atem Garang de Kuek said in a separate interview that the World Food Programme helicopter took off from Bor town with Mading Akueth who works for World Food Program and Jacob Aleer who works for Lutheran World Federation and went to pick Isaiah Chol Aruai from Twic.
This helicopter was en route to Juba from Mabior in Panyagor but due to explained reasons, it turned and landed in the rebel-held territory in Jiech, Ayod County, Jonglei state.