South Sudan peacebuilding minister Stephen Par Kuol arrested – officials

JUBA – South Sudan’s National Security Service (NSS) arrested peacebuilding minister Stephen Par Kuol on Thursday after storming his office in Juba, opposition officials said. His whereabouts remain unknown.

In a statement, Puok Both Baluang, acting spokesman for First Vice President Riek Machar, said National Security Service (NSS) operatives detained Kuol at the Ministry of Peacebuilding.

“The National Security Service (NSS) has struck again, arresting Hon. Stephen Par Kuol, Minister of Peacebuilding and Secretary General of the National Transitional Committee (NTC), from his office a few minutes ago,” Baluang wrote on Facebook.

A senior official from the opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) told Sudans Post that Kuol was arrested alongside his executive secretary, Lak Gabriel Mayik, bodyguard Chuol Both, and driver Kot Golong.

“This is to confirm to you that Hon. Stephen Par Kuol, the National Minister of Peacebuilding, was arrested a few minutes ago together with Lak Gabriel Mayiek, executive secretary, Chuol Both Gatluak, bodyguard, and Kot Golong, his driver,” the official said.

The arrests come amid growing tensions in Juba following the detention of Lt. Gen. Gabriel Duop Lam, deputy chief of defense forces for the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) and chief of staff for the SPLA-IO, on Tuesday.

Duop’s detention was followed by the arrest of Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chuol, who was taken from his residence at 2:00 a.m. on Wednesday by NSS personnel.

Authorities have not disclosed the reason for the arrests, but tensions have escalated in Nasir County, Upper Nile State, where armed youth, known as the White Army, briefly seized control of Nasir town.

The youth captured an SSPDF brigade commander, later releasing him to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), which flew him to Juba, according to local sources.