The United States government strongly condemns the temporary detention of six members of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development’s (IGAD) Monitoring and Verification Mechanism (MVM) team and three aircrew by opposition forces on August 23^rd in Mayom County, Unity State, South Sudan. We also regret the death of a member of the MVM team during this incident, and await the results of a formal investigation. Impediments to movement of MVM personnel are a clear violation of the Cessation of Hostilities (COH) agreement, signed by both sides on January 23. We reiterate our support for IGAD mediation efforts, and underscore the importance of MVM operations in facilitating the implementation of the COH agreement and the recently signed Security Matrix.