The six remained detained at the National Security Service headquarters, known as Blue House, according to a statement by the Union of Journalists of South Sudan on Friday evening.

Patrick Oyet, the president of the South Sudan Union of Journalists, told Reuters that the journalists “are suspected of having knowledge on how the video of the president urinating himself came out”.

In the third week of December, a video appearing to show Kiir urinating on himself in public circulated on social media.