South Sudan deports 3 US military personnel

The U.S. and South Sudanese officials on Wednesday said that South Sudan has deported three U.S. citizens, two of whom were military personnel while the third deserted the army.

South Sudanese foreign affairs ministry spokesman Mawien Makol said the three had been deported because they did not have visas but said they may have claimed to be journalists.

“I heard about three American journalists who were detained on the border between Kenya and South Sudan because these journalists had not received visas,” he told Reuters.

South Sudan’s four-year-old civil war has displaced more than three million people and briefly sparked a famine earlier this year.

A Facebook page and Instagram account in Zwiefelhofer’s name show him in military uniform and photographs of flags, weapons and buildings that appear to have been taken in Ukraine, where foreign volunteers are helping to fight pro-Russian separatists

It was gathered that, Social media accounts and a magazine interview in the names of two of the men suggested that they had recently been fighting pro-Russian forces in Ukraine.

Craig Austin Lang, William Wright-Martinovich and Alex Zwiefelhofer were detained on June 21 trying to cross to South Sudan from Kenya, said Lieutenant Colonel Joe Buccino from America’s 82nd Airborne Unit.

They were deported to Kenya, he added. Private First Class Zwiefelhofer was absent from the 82nd without leave, he said.

“We are working with U.S. authorities in the area to return Private First Class Alex Zwiefelhofer to U.S. military control. They are in Kenya,” he said in an email.

It was not clear when the three were transferred to Kenyan custody, as Kenyan authorities reported to not yielding or return calls seeking comment.