South Sudan advocacy urges release of detained activist

JUBA, FEBRUARY 9^TH 2023 (SUDANS POST) – South Sudan National Consensus Form, a local rights advocacy group, on Wednesday called for the immediate release of political and human rights activist, Morris Mabior Awikjok.

Morris was arrested along Kangundo road at his home in Kenya on Saturday, February 4, by individuals the wife, Angelina Aliet claimed to be police officers from Kenya.

Aliet alleged the armed individuals ransacked their house, confiscated their phones and laptops, and handcuffed her husband.

Morris was seeking asylum in Kenya after a fallout with government officials in South Sudan and had since lived in Kenya for two years.

He has been vigilant about matters of governance, corruption, and leadership he believed had caused his people harm.

A source in Juba claimed Mabior was extradited from Kenya and handed over to National Security Service who put him behind bars at Blue House.

“We call for Awikjok’s immediate release unconditional release with guaranteed safety and bringing the perpetrators to book in a transparent court of justice,” the group said in a statement extended to Sudans Post on Wednesday.

The group condemned what it called “unwarranted humiliation and detention” of activists.

“National Consensus received with great concern and trepidation, the disputing news of the illegal abduction of the respected activist Mr. Morris Mabior Awikjok from Nairobi over the weekend February 3 and 4,’ it said.

The group expressed fears that activist Morris might be killed in a similar way, late human rights activist Dong Samuel and senior opposition politician, Aggrey Idris were murdered in Blue House in 2019.

“The undemocratic government of South Sudan is used to abducting citizens from neighboring  countries since as it did in 2017 to late human rights activist Dong Samuel and senior opposition politician, Aggrey Idris who was later tortured, maimed and later killed in Blue House.”

Aggry Iddri, SPLM (IO) National Committee Chairperson of Humanitarian Affairs, and Dong Samuel, a Human Rights activist disappeared in Nairobi after their kidnapping by South Sudan on 23 and 24 January 2017, respectively.

The National Security agents transported the two men from Kenya to Juba in a commercial plane on January 27, 2017, chartered with the help of South Sudan’s embassy in Nairobi.

Luak and Idri were then moved to a sprawling detention facility in Luri, about 20 kilometers west of Juba, and killed three days later, according to in a report released by the Panel of South Sudan experts in May 2019.