Kenya aided rendition of South Sudan government critic, UN inquiry

Nairobi. Kenyan police cooperated with South Sudan's security agencies in the abduction and rendition of a government critic from Nairobi to Juba, according to a UN-backed inquiry published Thursday.

The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said Morris Mabior disappeared after being forcibly returned to South Sudan in February and detained by the country's National Security Service (NSS).

"We assume that he is still alive, and under custody of the National Security Service," said Carlos Castresana Fernandez, one of the three members of the UN-mandated independent commission.

"This conduct could only have been made with the cooperation of some agents in Kenya," he told reporters at the report's launch.

A spokeswoman for the Kenya Police Service told AFP she had not seen the report and could not comment on its findings.

Mabior's disappearance has chilled other critics living outside South Sudan and underscored the government's willingness to pursue dissenters beyond its borders, the commission said.

It warned that Juba's "deep-seated aversion to public scrutiny" undermined the prospect that the country's first-ever elections, slated for late 2024, would be credible.

It detailed how civil society activists were subject to violent reprisals for speaking out about human rights violations, and had their phones and online activity tapped and monitored.

NSS officers were stationed in every newsroom enforcing a draconian campaign of illegal censorship, the commission said.

"Even online media is not spared. Media that is based outside the country, which is out of the physical reach of security officers, is nevertheless targeted with cyber attacks and website blocking in order to silence their reporting," said Barney Afako, a commission member.

The climate of fear and control extends beyond South Sudan, the commission said, with Juba harassing and intimidating critics living abroad, particularly in neighbouring countries Kenya, Sudan and Uganda.

"These extra-territorial operations have included the participation of security forces of other countries," the report said.

In the high-profile case of Mabior, a former civil servant, the commission received "credible information" that Kenyan police officers were involved and present during the abduction.

"In light of the findings... particularly on the involvement of Kenyan police in the rendition, a credible inquiry is evidently required to further determine the circumstances," the commission said.

'Cruel treatment'

"There needs to be a recommitment of all neighbours of South Sudan... (to) respect their legal obligations, particularly not to return people who are almost certainly going to face cruel treatment," Afako said.

In January, a month before Mabior's disappearance, Kenyan President William Ruto vowed there would be no enforced disappearances under his administration.

South Sudan achieved independence in 2011 but plunged into civil war two years later.

A peace deal brought the warring sides into a power-sharing government but key tenets of the pact, including a new constitution and a special court to try war-era abuses, have not materialised.