S Sudan calls for release of officials detained by rebels

South Sudan Saturday called for unconditional release of 14 officials who were captured by armed rebels on Wednesday near the border with Ethiopia.

Dickson Gatluak, a military spokesman for the SPLA-IO splinter group under First Vice President Taban Deng Gai, said armed youth linked to his exiled predecessor Riek Machar detained the 14-member peace delegation in Akobo County, Bieh State.

“SPLA-IO is calling for the unconditional release of 14 members of peace mission delegates who went to Akobo purposely to embrace and disseminate peace messages,” Gatluak said in a statement.

“These persons are not for military mission but civil administrators who are there on the ground for peace,” he said.

The rebel movement under Machar confirmed the detention of the officials in a statement posted on Facebook, alleging that they captured a group of government soldiers trying to enter rebel-controlled areas.

Gatluak said those detained included the Commissioner of Akobo County, Tut Chai Riek, adding that all the detainees’ are civilians.

South Sudan has been devastated by more than three years of civil war that erupted in December 2013.

A peace deal was signed in August 2015 between the warring parties under intense pressure from the international community led to formation of unity government in April 2016, but was shattered again in July the same year as rival forces belonging to the President Slava Kiir and his former deputy clashed in the capital Juba.

The conflict has created one of the fastest -growing humanitarian crisis in the world as 6 million people face life-threatening hunger while more than 4 million have been displaced.