US Department of State. (Photo: Courtesy).

The United States government said it will impose visa restrictions on South Sudanese nationals directly responsible for transnational repression including the kidnapping and deportation of South Sudan activists abroad.

U.S. Department of State said in a statement on Friday, that it is taking the punitive measures to address the threat that the transitional government poses to South Sudanese activists and government critics everywhere around the world.

“The Department of State is taking steps to impose visa restrictions on multiple South Sudanese nationals directly responsible for the kidnappings of South Sudanese activists abroad and for their involvement in transnational repression,” he said.  

“These visa restrictions address the ongoing threat the South Sudan Transitional Government poses to South Sudanese activists and dissidents, no matter where they are located.”

The sanctions will be imposed under the Khashoggi Ban, a policy of the country’s Immigration and Nationality Act.

Khashoggi Ban is a sanction and visa restriction announced by the U.S. Department of State in memory of Saudi journalist and government critic Jamal Khashoggi. who was murdered, allegedly by Saudi security agents, in October 2018.

The US said it remains concerned about multiple “credible reports” of South Sudanese nationals who have been threatened, killed, or kidnapped in neighboring countries.

Washington also raised concerns about individuals who have been forcibly returned to South Sudan to face “politically motivated” reprisals.

“We call on the Government of South Sudan to create an environment conducive to free and fair elections in December, including by ending its targeting and harassment of overseas citizens and by expanding civic space within its borders.”

“We support the people of South Sudan at home and abroad, including those brave individuals working to promote transparency, fight corruption, and advocate for democracy and human rights at such a critical juncture in their country’s history.”

On 4th February 2023, South Sudan government critic Morris Mabior Awikjok Bak was arbitrarily arrested, allegedly by armed Kenyan security forces and a South Sudanese man in civilian dress at his residence in Nairobi, Amnesty International reported.

The rights watchdog said it is most likely that he was forcefully returned to Juba, South Sudan and is being held in incommunicado detention at a National Security Service detention facility.

Also, the UN Panel of Experts on South Sudan issued a report finding that South Sudan’s security personnel kidnapped Dong and Aggrey in Nairobi in January 2017.

The UN experts said that the two men were flown to South Sudan on a commercial plane chartered with the help of South Sudan’s embassy in Nairobi on January 27.

They were detained in the NSS headquarters at Jebel in the capital, Juba, then moved to the NSS training facility in Luri, near Juba, the report noted.

The panel of experts concluded that it is “highly probable” that the two were executed there on January 30, 2017.

The government of South Sudan denied involvement in the reported extra-judicial killing of its critics Dong Samuel Luak and Aggrey Idri, the latter affiliated with the SPLM-IO at the time.

Government Spokesperson and Minister of Information, Michael Makuei Lueth said any investigation should start in Kenya where the two men were kidnapped.

“It’s not the government of South Sudan that apprehended them; it’s the Kenyan government. So, if any investigation [is to be conducted], investigate Kenya, not us,” Michael Makuei told Eye Radio in 2019.

In August 2019, Hope for Humanity Africa and the Pan African Lawyers Union sued the governments of South Sudan and Kenya over the abduction and possible murder of the activists, at the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) in Tanzania.