South Sudan: Detention of Oil Workers in South Sudan Indicates Abduction Risks from Both Armed Factions and 'For-Profit' Bandits

Mar 27, 2017 | Verner Ayukegba, IHS Jane's Terrorism & Insurgency Centre
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The faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) loyal to former South Sudanese first vice-president Riek Machar declared on 21 March that it had detained four oil workers, including at least one foreign national, employed by the DAR consortium in Gumbri, Upper Nile state. The SPLM-IO accused the oil workers of working for the government in Juba, which it deems to be illegitimate, and made the release of foreign nationals conditional on direct negotiations between the SPLM-IO and the governments of the detainees. This came one week after the US-based Christian charity, Samaritan's Purse, reported that several of its South Sudanese employees had been detained near the village of Mayendit in neighbouring Unity state by an unidentified armed group.