Kidnappers forgiven, time to move on

JAMES Gatdet Dak, the former press secretary of South Sudan’s main opposition leader, Riek Machar, says he has forgiven those responsible for his kidnapping from the Kenyan capital Nairobi in 2016, the Sudan Tribune reported.

Dak also expressed his gratitude to President Salva Kiir for ordering his release from prison in accordance with a peace deal he signed with the country’s opposition groups.

“I want to leave behind whatever happened to me. I have forgiven those responsible for my kidnapping and illegal deportation from Nairobi to Juba,” Dak said.

The former press secretary, a registered refugee in Kenya, was kidnapped from his home in November 2016, a move widely condemned by the UN and international human rights organisations.

Dak said the arrest was carried out by Kenyan security officers after he expressed support for the dismissal of a Kenyan UN force commander in South Sudan who was accused of failing to protect civilians during the July 2016 crisis in the South Sudanese capital Juba. |