HRW urges release of two S Sudanese arrested for gov’t criticism

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir Mayardit at the 33rd Ordinary Session of the African Union Summit, at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa. [File: Michael Tewede/AFP]

Global watchdog Human Rights Watch has called for the release of a clergyman and a university professor in South Sudan, both detained since last year for criticising the government.

In a statement released on March 1, HRW called for the charges against the two to be dropped, saying the arrests were a “systematic intimidation of civil society and attempt to suppress free speech”.