JUBA, JANUARY 12TH 2023 (Thejubamirror ) – South Sudan’s former minister of information for the country’s Western Equatoria State Engineer Charles Kisanga was on Wednesday morning kidnapped in the capital Juba by men wearing army uniforms, his wife and a close friend say.
Suzanne Kisanga, Charles’ wife, told thejubamirror. in an exclusive interview this morning that her husband had left in the morning on Wednesday with a friend for a meeting with a person she identified as Jackson Gamu at Classic Hotel and never returned after being pushed into a car.
“My husband left in the morning with one of his friends and after they arrived there, someone came with a car, apparently the one who was supposed to have a meeting with him, and asked him to get into a car and they drove him away and never returned to me,” Suzanne said.
When contacted by thejubamirror , the friend who preferred not to be named confirmed the incident and said that he had left for the meeting with Charles to meet someone who he said asked him after arrival to the hotel to get into a pickup vehicle before retreating and coming back with two vehicles after which they took him by force.
“Charles yesterday morning told me to accompany him to a place for a meeting with someone but then the venue of the meeting was changed as we were on the way and it was set to be at Classic Hotel at Hai Mawona. We left at 9 something AM and we stayed at the hotel for 45 minutes before the people who kidnapped him arrived,” friend said.
“At 10:00AM, someone came and Charles called him with the name Jackson Gamu and he asked Charles to get into a pickup vehicle and he refused. He left the hotel and then he returned at 10:23AM with another car and all of them were wearing SSPDF uniform.
“They started pushing him (Charles) into the car and they left me and since that time, have never heard from Kisanga again,” he recounts.
Suzanne told Sudans Post that they have opened a police case at Munuki police station and have gone to the National Security Service (NSS) and the SSPDF military intelligence to see if Charles was being detained in those areas but haven’t found any information.
“We have opened a police case at Munuki Police station and we have also spoken to the police because he is a brigadier general in the VIP protection unit which was graduated in August. The police spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Justin said he was going to file a report as well,” she said.
“We have also gone to the National Security Service and the South Sudan People’s Defense Force Military Intelligence (MI) but we have got no information about him and they told us that they will inform us if there is going to be any information,” she added.
She further said that she had heard from her husband that he had a long-time dispute with the speaker of parliament Jemma Nunu Kumba since she was the SPLM Acting Secretary General and that dispute escalated recently.
“I was told by Charles that he had disagreements in politic with the speaker of parliament since she was the acting SPLM Secretary-General and the dispute has gone worse recently just days before he was kidnapped and I believe that his disappearance has something to do with those political feuds,” she said.
It remains unconfirmed as to who is behind Kisanga’s kidnapping. But Sudans Post confirmed from a source that the kidnapper is indeed