East Africa: Tanzanian Pilot Freed By South Sudanese Rebels

 

Photo: The Citizen

Cockpit (file photo).

Dar es Salaam — Tanzanian pilot Mohammed Nasser, who was detained by South Sudanese rebels, has been freed, the local media in the war-torn country reported yesterday. According to the report by Sudan Tribune, the pilot was freed with his charted plane by SPLM-IO led by Riek Machar on "humanitarian" grounds.

Sudan Tribune quoted rebels director of public relations Garang Mabior, saying the pilot was released without any conditions and dismissed as untrue earlier reports that they had demanded the release of the Tanzanian national with the hope that he would be exchanged for Machar's spokesman James Dak, who is being detained.

"There was never such a demand. This is just usual propaganda of Juba to think that The United Republic of Tanzania is supporting our movement, when no such a thing exists... The Tanzanian pilot, who was sent by the Juba regime to the SPLM-IO liberated territories without his knowledge, believing he would be harmed for their propaganda purposes, has been released today with his plane on humanitarian grounds," said Mabior in a statement quoted by Sudan Tribune.

The rebels, however, could not state of the fate of Mr Nasser passenger named Peter Gatkoi, who is a county commissioner of the region called Payinjiar, which is under Juba's control.

Last Friday, Sudan Tribune broke a story of the capture of the pilot operating a plane chartered by South Sudan government in Ganyliel county in Unity State.

The paper then quoted Mr Nesser as saying he could not contact the Tanzanian government, but blamed the Juba administration for sending him to a rebel controlled area without informing him.

"There is no one I can blame, rather than the government that told me the area was secured and under their full control, yet we ended up in the hands of the opposition forces on landing in the area," Mr Nasser told Sudan Tribune over phone.

According to John Tap Puot, the rebel-appointed commissioner in the area, the pilot lacked proper identification documents and they had to detain him to invest his case