An armed rebel group in South Sudan has freed eighteen United Nations peacekeepers after three days in captivity.
The UN however informed that a dozen of its contractors who were operating a fuel barge before they were abducted have not yet been released. U.N. peacekeeping chief HERVE LADSOUS reportedly spoke to South Sudan’s opposition leader RIEK MACHAR about the incident.
U.N. spokesman STEPHANE DUJARRIC warned that attacks against peacekeepers and other U.N. staff can constitute war crimes. DUJARRIC called for the return of the U.N. contractors as well as the barge and the weapons that were taken from the peacekeepers. More than one hundred rebels were involved in the seizure of the barge on Monday in the north of Malakal, in Upper Nile State.