JUBA, March 31 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan on Friday demanded that rebels free the remaining local oil workers who were arrested alongside the three foreign workers released on Thursday in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
President Salva Kiir's spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told Xinhua in Juba that the SPLA-in opposition (SPLA-IO) led by former first vice president Riek Machar should also release the three local oil workers.
"They have released the three foreign oil engineers, but they have not released three local staff," Ateny said, adding that the trio could either be dead or being subjected to cruel torture.
The three oil workers including a Pakistan and two Indians working for the Dar Petroleum oil Company (DPOC) were captured early March in Maiwut County in the northern Upper Nile region.
"Either they (SPLA-IO) have killed them or still been torturing them. And this is an act of terrorism," Ateny said.
The presidential spokesman also lauded the Ethiopian government for their efforts in negotiating the release of the foreign oil workers, but also urged the two neighboring countries to further help on the release of the local staff still being held by rebels.
"The Ethiopians should be appreciated, but also they should negotiate the release of the local staff still being detained,"Ateny said.
Meanwhile, the ministry of foreign affairs spokesman Mawien Makol told Xinhua that they have been working hard to ensure the release of all those detained by the rebels.
"Don't forget our government has been working hard for those people detained to be released," said Makol without disclosing more details.
The latest developments followed the release by the SPLA-IO of eight aid workers from U.S-based charity Samaritan's Purse captured in March at Mayendit county of Unity state where famine was declared in February by the UN.
War-torn South Sudan since conflict broke out in December 2013, has been grappling to increase oil production in the northern Unity and Upper Nile oil fields after it drastically reduced from over 350,000 barrels a day (bpd) to about 130,000 bpd.
And currently the oil rich and yet impoverished country is faced with economic hardship amid soaring hyper inflation of 835 percent, and the latest kidnappings of oil workers could disrupt South Sudan's priority of boosting the battered economy using the much-depended upon hard currency from oil sales.
