A prominent South Sudanese activist has fled to Washington with the help of the US government, which issued emergency visas to him and his family after he said South Sudan’s president ordered him abducted or killed.
Peter Biar Ajak arrived in the US late Thursday after weeks of hiding in Kenya and an anxious departure complicated by COVID-19 restrictions.
“The last few weeks have been a bit terrifying. Extremely terrifying,” the 36-year-old activist told The Associated Press shortly after landing.
Ajak, a Harvard graduate and economist who helped shape his young country’s national security system — one that imprisoned him years later — was tipped off by “very senior” officials back home, his lawyer Jared Genser said.
The emergency visas were “highly, highly, highly unusual,” Genser said, and involved discussions with the State Department, which decided the threat was credible.
A State Department spokesperson noted Ajak's announced arrival and referred all questions on his immigration status to the Department of Homeland Security.
South Sudan government spokesmen Ateny Wek Ateny and Michael Makuei didn't respond to requests for comment.
Ajak now plans to resume his work and, if the chance arises, meet President Donald Trump to thank him for the pressure US government officials have applied: “It would be my great honor.”
According to AFP, South Sudan plunged into war in 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his former vice president Riek Machar of plotting a coup.
A peace deal in September 2018 led to the formation of a unity government in February with Machar serving as first vice president -- the latest attempt by the two men to rule together.
UN special envoy David Shearer warned on the country's ninth anniversary of independence this month that there had been a "stalling of the peace process" and "escalation in conflict between armed groups" in several parts of the country which had led to deaths and displacement.
