The US has deported eight people to South Sudan following a legal battle that saw them diverted to Djibouti for several weeks. The men - convicted of crimes including murder, sexual assault and robbery - had either completed or were near the end of their prison sentences.

The Trump administration said it deported a group of eight men convicted of serious crimes in the United States to the conflict-ridden African country of South Sudan, following a weeks-long legal saga that had kept the deportees in a military base in Djibouti for weeks.

Courts blocked the handover after lawyers raised concerns of torture. Then the Supreme Court intervened to allow the Trump administration’s plan to move forward.