South Sudan abductee from Kenya held in military facility in Juba: Amnesty

Athorbey Al-Gaddhaffy-Dit, 51, also has Kenyan citizenship and was living in Nairobi, where he had repeatedly warned his life was in danger because he was revealing corruption linked to South Sudan's ruling elite, a representative told AFP.

Multiple activists and opposition figures from neighbouring countries have been abducted in Kenya and taken back to their home nations in recent years.

Police told Al-Gaddhaffy-Dit's wife on Tuesday that he had been abducted at gunpoint in the early morning by men in masks driving a white vehicle as he walked out of a casino in Nairobi.

"We have received credible information that Athorbey Al-Gaddhaffy-Dit... was unlawfully deported to South Sudan and is currently being held at a military detention facility in Juba," Amnesty said on X.

South Sudan is one of the world's poorest and most corrupt countries.

A United Nations report last year detailed how government officials had stolen billions of dollars in oil money while leaving the population with hardly any essential services.

Amnesty has previously warned that Kenya -- long considered a refuge for dissidents in a repressive east African region -- was increasingly complicit in allowing neighbouring countries to abduct their citizens.

In November 2024, Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye was kidnapped in Kenya and taken to a military court in Uganda, where he is facing treason charges.

Turkish and Tanzanian dissidents have also been kidnapped on Kenyan soil.