South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir says he pardoned two senior government officials on Friday and promised to release other political prisoners as his rule faces surging resistance, warfare and famine.
General Elias Waya, a former governor of Wau state and his deputy General Andrea Dominic, were arrested in June 2016 and detained at a military facility in Juba.
Officials never gave a reason for their detention.
President Salva Kiir told a gathering in the capital Juba that other political detainees will be released this weekend.
On Monday disaffected Lieutenant General Thomas Cirillo Swaka accused Kiir of turning the country’s military into a “tribal army”, launched a new rebel National Salvation Front and vowed to topple him.
