Activist ‘tortured’ by NSS for writing against arrest of ex-Northern Bahr el Ghazal governor

JUBA – An activist in South Sudan has claimed that he was briefly detained and then tortured by South Sudan’s National Security Service (NSS) for writing against the detention of former Northern Bahr el Ghazal state governor-turned activist Kuel Aguer.

Mazala Mabil Pham who is also a student of the Catholic University of South Sudan said in an email to Sudans Post that he was arrested twice by the National Security Service, before being taken to the spy agency’s headquarters also known as the ‘Blue House’ where he claimed he was then tortured.

“I was arrested on the 3^rd of August, and again yesterday,” he said in the email on Thursday evening.

“I wrote something about the arrest of former governor of [Northern Bahr el Ghazal] Kuel Aguer Kuel, on Facebook. I was tortured at the Blue House which is the National Security Service headquarters in Juba,” he added.

He further reiterated that he was ‘tortured, and released after sometimes” without charges.

While Sudans Post could not independently verify his claim, marks of torture could be seen on Mabil’s forehead.

It remains unclear what he had wrote about Kuel’s detention. Kuel was arrested last week after he and other prominent activists launched a civil rights organization, the People’s Coalition for Civil Action (PCCA).

It said the body would “mobilize” the people of South Sudan to remove President Salva Kiir Mayardit from power.