South Sudan to Sudan: We let your soldiers go, where are ours?
During the violent military escalation in early April over the disputed, oil-producing border area of Heglig, soldiers from both Sudan and South Sudan died and were injured or taken prisoner. The international community, concerned that the conflict could spiral into full scale war, applied intense diplomacy to resolve the conflict.
As a result, Sudan and South Sudan have agreed in principle to follow a United Nations-endorsed roadmap” to peace by August 2. Yet, with no breakthrough in the Sudan-South Sudan negotiations, the two countries stand to face sanctions.
Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) spokesperson, Colonel Philip Aguer Panyang.
However there are still some casualties of the recent conflict in Heglig that remain unaccounted for. The fate of South Sudanese soldiers taken prisoner there remains unknown, says the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) spokesperson, Colonel Philip Aguer Panyang.
We have not been able to confirm whether they are dead or alive. Check with the Red Cross” Aguer told The Niles on July 16. He suggested the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) because, he explained, it was the only possible way of communicating with any prisoners in Sudan at the moment.
However the head of the ICRC delegation in Juba, Melker Mabeck, said the humanitarian agency had not yet succeeded in gaining access to the missing South Sudanese soldiers.
We are still finding ways to access them in detention, to find out how many there are and assess the conditions they are living in,” Mabeck said.
In late April, the ICRC was successful in helping to repatriate 13 Sudanese soldiers captured during fighting in Heglig. Intermediaries from Egypt also helped to negotiate the soldiers’ release.
Sudanese soldiers, captured during the conflict in Heglig, arrive at the Juba Military Airbase on April 15.
We’re extremely pleased to have brought these men back to their home country,” Mabeck said at the time, in an official statement. The repatriation of these 13 men confirms the ICRC’s role as a trusted neutral intermediary. We remind the parties that the ICRC is entitled to access to all prisoners of war in order to carry out its humanitarian work.”
At the time that the Sudanese soldiers were released, spokesperson for South Sudanese Ministry of Defence, Kuol Deng Abot Kuol, told reporters that although the South Sudanese regularly released prisoners of war, Sudan had not reciprocated. And he asked Egyptian diplomats to help in getting the South Sudanese soldiers still held captive, released.
Despite promises by Egyptian diplomats to look into the matter of missing South Sudanese soldiers further, nothing concrete appeared to have been achieved so far.
