South Sudan has released at least 30 political prisoners since President Salva Kiir declared an amnesty in May to facilitate national dialogue and douse a four-year civil war, a senior security official said.

Jalban Obaj, director of legal affairs at the Internal Security Bureau told state television that the prisoners had been set free at different times since the declaration of the amnesty.

Nearly all the ex-detainees, including Justin Wanawila Bilal, a religious cleric, had been accused of supporting opposition leader and former vice president Riek Machar.

“The release of the political detainees came as a gesture of good will,” Ateny Wek Ateny, Kiir’s spokesman said.

He said the freeing of the detainees without any precondition also demonstrated that Kiir was determined to resolve the country’s conflict.

South Sudan was plunged into war in 2013 after a political disagreement between Kiir and Machar strained relations between the two. Kiir then sacked Machar as his deputy, triggering fighting between forces loyal to both men.

Kiir hails from the Dinka while Machar is a Nuer and the rivalry between the two tribes has meant much of the fighting and violence has unfolded along ethnic divisions.

South Sudan Human Rights Observatory (SSHRO), a local non-governmental organisation, said in a statement the release of only 30 prisoners was ‘cosmetic because thousands of South Sudanese… are still unlawfully detained’.

The SSHRO also accused the government of continuing a campaign of ‘hunting, harassing and kidnapping political opponents’ – a charge Kiir’s administration denies.

An estimated quarter of South Sudan’s 12 million people have been uprooted by the conflict, with neighbouring Uganda hosting a million of those displaced.

Machar is being held as a ‘guest’ in South Africa to prevent him stirring up trouble, diplomats and political sources told Reuters last December.

Last month an international mediator said Machar had declined to renounce violence or declare a unilateral ceasefire and instead demanded new peace talks outside South Sudan.

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The High Court in Kenya has denied bail to televangelist Gilbert Deya of the ‘miracle babies’ infamy, who is facing five child abduction and trafficking charges.

Mr. Deya, who was arrested in London by the Metropolitan Police on December 13, 2006, and deported from the United Kingdom on Friday August 4.

Mr. Deya was handed over to the Kenyan authorities following accusations that he coordinated the trafficking of the children, who his church would later present as ‘miracles’ for barren mothers. Police allege that Deya stole the five children between May 1999 and December 2004 from Pumwani Hospital to facilitate his ‘miracle babies’ project.

Earlier in 2005, Mr. Deya’s wife Mary Deya was handed a three-year jail term after she was found guilty of stealing a child from the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi. Mary falsely claimed that the baby was hers, but it was later confirmed that she had stolen it.

Deya was ordained by the United Evangelical Church of Kenya and styles himself ‘Archbishop’. He was an evangelist in Kenya in the late 1980s to early 1990s, but moved to the UK, establishing Gilbert Deya Ministries in 1997.

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Heavy fighting between South Sudan’s warring factions broke out in South Sudan’s Pagak town, the main rebel headquarters located at the Ethiopian border.

The fighting broke out hours after a plane from Juba took off from Pagak airport.

Sounds of heavy artillery and explosions could be heard from 30 kilometers (18 miles) away, causing civilians in the surrounding areas to flee.

South Sudanese rebels say they launched the attack after government forces refused to surrender or vacate their stronghold, Pagak.

“We told them to leave Pagak or surrender, but they refused. So, we decided to attack them,” Deputy Commanding General of the SPLA-IO 5^th Division Major General James Ochan Puot said.

On Monday, the SPLA-IO urged Pagak residents to stay in their homes, warning of the imminent attack and suggested that government troops surrender ‘before it is too late’.

A rebel military intelligence agent told the South Sudan News Agency that their intelligence branches and contacts in neighboring countries knew that a military airplane loaded with government troops, weapons, and ammunition was scheduled to arrive in Pagak Thursday evening. The officer asserted that they are prepared to ‘teach government troops a good lesson’.

A SSNA crew embedded with the SPLA-IO commanding Generals have been prohibited by the armed opposition to fully cover the fighting, citing their military combat rules which exclude civilians in active war zones.

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