Forces allied to the SPLA-IO rebels in South Sudan detained a team of ceasefire monitors in Unity State on Sunday. One of the team died in rebel custody.
East African organization IGAD, which runs the ceasefire monitoring mission, condemned the rebels for detaining their team but did not reveal the cause of death. Reuters reports that it was a heart attack.
Different sources say that the monitor who died was a South Sudanese national, representing SPLA-Juba, which has a representative on each of IGAD’s eight groups of monitors.
“IGAD condemns the death of one of its ceasefire monitors in Bentiu in the hands of forces allied to the Sudan People Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO). The monitors who are part of the eight verification teams had landed in the Unity State town for their routine inspection mission before being arrested and marched to unknown destination,” reads a press statement by IGAD.
“The violators of the cessation of hostilities agreement and those responsible for the death will bear the consequences,” said Ambassador Seyoum Mesfin, the Chairman of the IGAD Mediation Team.