South Sudan Ceasefire Monitor Dies

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) said Monday that one of its ceasefire monitors has died in Bentiu after being detained by opposition forces.

IGAD, which is leading peace talks for South Sudan, did not identify the man but said he was part of a verification team that was in Unity state on Saturday on a routine inspection.

Shortly after arriving in Bentiu, the monitors were "arrested and marched to an unknown destination," IGAD officials said. They reported that the monitor died of natural causes.

The U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) said the deceased was a liaison officer for the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and one of six ceasefire monitors and three air crew.

Mission officials confirmed that he died of natural causes and that the remaining monitors and the air crew were rescued and flown to the UNMISS base in Bentiu on Sunday. South Sudan in Focus was unable to reach SPLA spokesman Philip Aguer for comment.

Seyoum Mesfin, the head of IGAD's South Sudan mediation team and Ethiopia's foreign minister, told reporters in Addis Ababa at an extraordinary South Sudan summit that those responsible for the ceasefire monitor's death will "bear the consequences."

Concern for security of the monitors

In a statement released after the South Sudan heads of state meeting, IGAD deplored repeated violations by both the government and opposition forces of the ceasefire agreement under which the monitoring teams operated. Fighting continued after the January 23 was signed. Due to concerns for their safety, the monitoring teams were not deployed for several months after the signing. 

IGAD also condemned the failure of the warring sides to set up a transitional government by an agreed-upon August 10 deadline. The statement warned that with continued fighting, South Sudan is slipping closer to a famine that would be devastating for the country and the entire region.