By William Madouk
Whereabouts of prominent journalist Adil Faris Mayath, former director of the state-owned South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC), after he was allegedly abducted by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, January 23, 2025, remain unknown.
Amira Alnahawi, Mayath’s wife, who is currently in Egypt, confirmed his disappearance, stating that she has been unable to locate him since Thursday.
“To people who know you and they stay in Juba Adil went missing since Thursday evening 23/1/2025 and according to my little knowledge he was taken to an unknown place,” she wrote.
She urged the law enforcement agencies, families, and acquaintances to help locate Mr. Adil’s whereabouts.
Faris, a well-known journalist, has served as a correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic for many years.
In July 2017, Mr. Adil was detained by security agents after he allegedly failed to broadcast President Salva Kiir’s speech live during the sixth Independence Day anniversary on July 9, and released after a week in custody.
When contacted the police spokesperson, Col. John Kassara said he was not aware of Adil’s disappearance but vowed to take swift action to see whether he was arrested for any crime from various police stations.
“In fact, I’m not aware of his disappearance, …I will try my level best to contact our officers in different police stations to confirm whether he’s having some personal problem in which maybe a case was opened against him or not,” said Kassara.
“If there was nothing of this kind at all, then I will also report back to you that he’s not in custody of the police,” he added.
Similarly, Mr. Emmanuel Monychol Akop, the editor-in-chief of The Dawn Daily English Newspaper, has been missing following his alleged arrest by the National Security Service (NSS) in November 2024.
Patrick Oyet, President of the Union of Journalists of South Sudan (UJOSS), voiced concern and emphasized that South Sudanese law mandates that any individual arrested be brought before a competent court within 24 hours.
Monychol’s arrest sparked concerns about the unchecked powers of security operatives by design of the National Security Service Act 2014, which was amended this year and allows arrests without a warrant.
However, the National Security Service spokesperson, John David Kumuri had not commented on the matter.