Sudanese embassy staffer mysteriously disappears in Juba

May 5, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s foreign ministry has announced on Tuesday that a worker at its diplomatic mission in South Sudan is missing since last Friday.

Foreign ministry spokesperson, Ali al-Sadiq, said in a press statement Tuesday the worker left office on Friday morning, noting he told his colleague that he was going to visit a relative in a Juba suburb, but he didn’t return till now.

He added that the worker is of sound mind and does not suffer from any illness or mental disorder, pointing he served as a guard for the mission’s office and was also helping in the delivery of correspondence between different units at the embassy.

“The local worker was transferred to work in our embassy in Juba in September 2011 and he was scheduled to return back to the ministry’s headquarters in August or September 2015,” reads the statement.

The spokesperson warned that the incident would have negative impact on relations between the two countries if Juba was proven to be involved in the mysterious disappearance of the worker.

He added the diplomatic mission searched for the missing worker at the police stations, hospitals and detention centres in Juba, saying they informed the diplomatic missions’ police, ministry of foreign affairs, and South Sudan’s security and intelligence services.

Al-Sadiq further added they filed a missing report with the police besides informing the worker’s family.

SOUTH SUDAN COMPLAINT TO THE UN

Meanwhile, Sudan’s foreign ministry has expressed astonishment at statements made by South Sudan’s deputy ambassador in Khartoum in which he said they intend to file a complaint with the United Nations because the Sudanese authorities did not allow him to visit a South Sudanese refugee camp in Khartoum.

Al-Jareeda daily newspaper has earlier quoted the southern diplomat as saying the authorities prevented him from inspecting conditions of the South Sudanese refugees in a camp in Jebel Awliya suburb, south of Khartoum, pointing he intends to lodge a complaint with the UN about the issue.

Al-Sadiq described the statements of the southern diplomat as “incomprehension”, saying even if the incident was true; a complaint cannot be filed against the host nation according to the diplomatic norms.

South Sudan seceded from Sudan in July 2011, but the relationship between the two nations remains tense.

(ST)