October 18, 2015 (WASHINGTON) – The Islamic State section in Libya (ISIS) released a video on Sunday purportedly showing the beheading of a man who identified himself as being a citizen of South Sudan.

Screenshot from ISIS video showing an unidentified South Sudan man’s beheading (ST)

The captive, dressed in dressed in orange jump suit, made a short statement in which he uttered his name but was not audible and confirmed his nationality.

The masked ISIS fighter in the video, who carried out the beheading, justified the killing by saying that “this is a message to our Muslim brothers in South Sudan who are suffering injustice, uprooting and slaughter at the hands of the Christian aggressors; we are conveying good news to you that Allah has deployed the soldiers of the caliphate to avenge for you and defend you”.

“We will cut every hand that hurt you. O’ Christians in South Sudan know that as you kill you will be killed and as you displace dour brothers we will do the same …No safety or shelter for you except that of the Islamic state.. We will fight all of you as you fight us”.

The South Sudanese was then forced down on his knees then beheaded. He could be heard snorting briefly in the process.

The authenticity of the video has yet to be verified.

It is not clear why ISIS believes Muslims in the world’s newest state are being persecuted.

There are no official figures on the number of Muslims in South Sudan though they are estimated to be around 20% of the population.

The International Religious Freedom Report for 2014 released by the U.S. State Department did not document any systematic discrimination of Muslims in South Sudan which is a secular state according to the constitution.

It only noted a couple of incidents from 2014 by which the the Central Equatoria State government demolished mosques built on government land.

"According to Islamic leaders, Muslim soldiers from the north, who came to South Sudan to fight during the war for independence, built these mosques in areas where they encamped, on land that did not belong to them".

"The South Sudan Islamic Council, the central coordinating body for Islamic groups in the country, worked with the Executive Office of the President, which acted as an intermediary with the state government, to discuss compensation in the form of new land, for the destroyed mosques. These discussions were ongoing at year’s end".

The report also mentioned that South Sudan President Salva Kiir "held an iftar and offered the Ministry of Education’s support to the Islamic community in building Islamic schools".

"Both a Christian representative and a Muslim representative read prayers at most official events, with translation from English to Arabic often provided".

"Muslims in government included at least one governor and, through July, 17 members of the 332-member National Legislative Assembly (NLA). After the NLA dismissed 23 members in August, only 309 seats in the NLA were filled and the number of Muslim members was unknown".

This is not the first incident of this type by ISIS in Libya targeting Christians.

Last February 21 Coptic Christian Egyptians were shown to be beheaded in the same manner by ISIS.

The following month 30 Ethiopian Christians were also killed by ISIS.

(ST)