South Sudanese government security officers prevented several local U.N. staff from traveling to Uganda this week in two incidents believed to based on their ethnicity, U.N. officials said on Wednesday.
South Sudan has been in political turmoil since President Salva Kiir sacked his deputy Riek Machar last year, triggering a conflict that has reopened deep ethnic tensions in the world’s youngest country which only won independence from Sudan in 2011.
Kiir comes from the dominant Dinka ethnic group, while Machar, now rebel leader, is from another major tribe, the Nuer.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that four national U.N. staff were denied permission to board a U.N. plane on Monday by National Security officers from the government of South Sudan and their passports were confiscated.
“It’s unfortunately not an isolated incident,” Dujarric told reporters. “A similar incident occurred with two other UNMISS national staff members at the airport yesterday.”
UNMISS is the U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. U.N. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the staff in both incidents were targeted based on their ethnicity.
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