JUBA – South Sudan’s National Security Service (NSS) arrested peacebuilding minister Stephen Par Kuol on Thursday after storming his workplace in Juba, opposition officers mentioned. His whereabouts stay unknown.
In an announcement, Puok Both Baluang, performing spokesman for First Vice President Riek Machar, mentioned National Security Service (NSS) operatives detained Kuol on 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) instructed Sudans Post that Kuol was arrested alongside his government 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 mentioned.
The arrests come amid rising tensions in Juba following the detention of Lt. Gen. Gabriel Duop Lam, deputy chief of protection forces for the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF) and chief of employees for the SPLA-IO, on Tuesday.
Duop’s detention was adopted 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 haven’t disclosed the rationale for the arrests, however tensions have escalated in Nasir County, Upper Nile State, the place armed youth, referred to as the White Army, briefly seized management of Nasir city.
The youth captured an SSPDF brigade commander, later releasing him to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), which flew him to Juba, in line with native sources.