S Sudan refuses to pay ransom for Indian engineers

The South Sudan government has refused to pay a ransom of $1 million for two Indian oil engineers abducted by rebels last week and demanded their unconditional release.

South Sudan’s information minister Michael Makuei said the rebels had demanded the ransom from the oil company employing the Indians, which he named as the partly Chinese-owned DAR Petroleum, or the government.

“The government of South Sudan will not pay the ransom,” Makuei told journalists in Juba, calling for the unconditional release of the hostages.

The Transitional Government of National Unity said in a statement that it “is bound by international law and UN resolutions to counter terrorist financing. The government is not ready to pay a ransom that encourages terrorist acts.”

Makuei said the Indians are being held at an unknown location by the forces of former first vice president-turned-rebel leader, Riek Machar.

Petroleum minister Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth said the Indian government had told authorities in Juba that it would not get involved in the incident and would instead “leave it wholly to the South Sudanese government”. There has been no official word so far on the abductions from the Indian government.

According to the South Sudan government, the Indians were abducted on March 8.

However, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-In Opposition (SPLA-IO) said it captured the engineers — identified as Ambross Edward and Muggy Vijaya Boopathy — on March 9 from an oilfield at Guelguk North in Upper Nile state after fierce fighting between rebel and government forces.

SPLA-IO spokesman William Gatjiath Deng claimed the Indians were working for the South Sudan government led by President Salva Kiir Mayardit. He said the Indians “refused to respect repeated warnings from the military command of the armed opposition”.

Petroleum minister Gatkuoth said security at various oilfields has been beefed up after the kidnappings. “We are deploying the army, national security services and police,” he said.

THE SUDAN PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMYIN OPPOSITION SAID IT CAPTURED THE ENGINEERS FROM AN OILFIELD ON MARCH 9