The Committee to Protect Journalists is calling for the immediate release of Joseph Afandy, who went missing last week.

The 27 year journalist was a reporter for the El-Tabeer Arabic daily newspaper which the national security allegedly closed down on the 22nd of December 2015.

The CPJ says the editor of the newspaper, Wazir Michael resigned after Afandy’s arrest, and the newspaper has not published since.

It says Afandi had recently written an opinion article criticizing the SPLM for failing to protect the lives of its people and for presiding over the civil war that has devastated the country.

CPJ says no charges against Afandy have been disclosed.

“No journalist should be jailed for doing his job, which includes the right to publish or broadcast critical observations about public figures and institutions,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Sue Valentine.

“South Sudanese authorities should release Joseph Afandy immediately or disclose any charges against him, and end their harassment of El Tabeer.”

South Sudan is one of the world’s most deadly countries for journalists, according to a press freedom advocacy group.

In January 2015, five journalists were killed in an ambush on a convoy in Western Bahr al Ghazal state.

CPJ says it is investigating the killings of two other journalists during 2015 to determine if they were work-related.