South Sudanese refugees and some Kenyans hold corruption protests in Nairobi in 2019 | Credit | Unknown

Amnesty International has condemned what it described as a “cross border campaign of harassment, intimidation and attacks on South Sudanese who are critical of the government.

In its briefing released earlier today, the rights body stated that the South Sudan government prevented series of global protests against its leadership from taking place, prior to the May 16th Celebration of the SPLA day.

In the report, Amnesty International referred to several planned protests that were successfully interrupted by the government both in Juba and the region, but protests in the US, Australia and Sudan took place unhindered.

It quoted the minister of information – Michael Makuei on 7 May, threatening protestors with “deadly” consequences.

The report also quoted President Salva Kiir in a statement he made in Juba on the 21 May as publicly reiterating the same threats to the alleged protestors.

Amnesty International further documented series of house-to-house searches and arrests targeting members and supporters of the Red Card Movement- a group that was supposedly planning the mass protests in Juba.

“The government has to let the people who are protesting peacefully to protest because that is their right to protest what type of country that they want,” said Seif Magango, Amnesty International’s deputy director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.

“I don’t imagine that the South Sudan government would want to continue to harass its own citizen simply for expressing themselves and voicing their concerns about their own country.

“So we are calling on the government in neighboring countries to protect the protesters from South Sudan to make sure that we don’t have a repeat of the situation that befell Dong and Agrey.”

According to a UN Panel of Experts on South Sudan report seen by Eye Radio, the two men were executed by Internal Security Bureau agents at a Luri NS facility three days after they were brought to Juba.

Dong and Aggrey Idri – who were kidnapped in Nairobi, Kenya, on 23 and 24 January, 2017 respectively, and then allegedly flown to Juba on a chartered plane on 27 January.

Amnesty International is a global movement that investigates and exposes the facts, whenever and wherever abuses happen to ensure governments and companies keep their promises and respect international law.