South Sudan rebels release Kenyan pilots after compensation paid: rebel spokesman
Two Kenyan pilots who had been abducted by South Sudanese rebels have been released after a compensation for the family of a civilian killed when their plane crashed last month was paid, a rebel spokesman said on Monday.
The pilots, Captain Frank Njoroge and co-pilot Kennedy Shamalla were abducted after their plane crashed in Akobo, in the Greater Upper Nile region in early January killing a woman and livestock.
The rebels had earlier asked for $200,000 compensation for the losses but later took it down to $107,743.
According to Lam Paul Gabriel, the deputy spokesman of the rebel SPLA-IO while talking to the Reuters news agency, the money had been paid.
“I have just confirmed now that pilots have been released by the local leaders of Akobo after they received a full compensation from the Kenya delegates,” Lam said.
“That is not a ransom. It is just a compensation requested not by the SPLA-IO but by the families of the deceased and the owners of the properties. All we did as SPLM-IO is just to facilitate the exchange and provide security for the pilots.”
A South Sudan army spokesman declined to comment. A Kenyan foreign ministry spokesman said they would issue a statement.
The oil-rich nation has been in the throes of civil war since 2013 just months after President Salva Kiir fired his then deputy Riek Machar.
The conflict has left a third of the population displaced, most of the oil production shut down and a wrecked economy.
Machar, who fled to Democratic Republic of Congo in 2016 after fierce fighting broke out in Juba, is now being held in South Africa to stop him fomenting trouble, diplomatic and political sources say.
