The UN Mission in South Sudan is urging the government to find the whereabouts of two UN staff who were abducted in Malakal last week.

The mission Acting Spokesperson, Joseph Contreras, says the whereabouts of the two men remain unknown since they were abducted six days ago.

Contreras told a press conference today that UNMISS and the entire UN family remain concerned about the safety of their abducted staff members.

“To date, we have had a total of four UN employees abducted from Malakal Airport. Three were abducted on Friday, October 10^th. They are what we call individual contractors. On the following day, October 11^th, two of those three were freed but the third individual contractor is still missing. Last Thursday, a World Food Program National staff member was abducted by armed men, again from Malakal Airport.” He said.

“We are obviously very troubled by the fact that these abduction and also that they taken place within six days of each other. And we call the national authorities to use all of there resources to find out more about the whereabouts and their conditions.” He added.

Last week, the United Nations World Food Program, said it was deeply concerned about the safety of one of its staff members, who was taken at gunpoint at Malakal Airport.

W-F-P called upon all parties to recognize and respect the impartiality, neutrality and independence of humanitarian workers who are delivering aid to people who have been affected by the conflict.