Machar was President Salva Kiir’s vice president, but a split in 2013 divided national loyalties and began a civil war fought largely along ethnic lines, Kiir’s Dinka troops against Machar’s Nuer rebels.
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Riek Machar, South Sudan’s former vice president and opposition leader, is in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations has said, weeks after he withdrew from South Sudan’s capital, Juba, during violent clashes with government troops.
The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, has launched an independent investigation into allegations that peacekeepers refused to respond to calls for help from civilians and foreigners as South Sudanese soldiers went on rampage on 11 July. A spokesman for Machar’s opposition SPLM-IO party, Mabior Garang, told the AP that the move was “illegal” and claimed that some officials who nominated Taban were “coerced by security officials”.
“We have undergone an extraction operation and so he is now in the care of the authorities in the DRC”.
It says it is very concerned that renewed fighting is undermining last year’s progress and putting tens of thousands of children at risk.
Mr Machar has crossed the border into neighbouring Congo after weeks in hiding and, according to a posting by his spokesman on Facebook, a “botched attempt to assassinate” him.
Machar’s spokesman Gatdet Dak said on Thursday that forces linked to President Salva Kiir “have been hunting [Machar], so for his safety he chose to relocate”. He announced his escape on Wednesday, the one year anniversary of the peace agreement that made him first vice president.
The news on Thursday came after a statement by the leadership of the SPLA In Opposition party said Machar had left South Sudan on Wednesday to a “safe country within the region”, without giving any further details on his exact whereabouts. Machar leaves Juba with his troops, saying he would return only if an global peacekeeping force guarantees his safety.
“At this precarious stage in South Sudan’s short history, UNICEF fears that a further spike in child recruitment could be imminent”.
Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman said late Tuesday that the United Nations chief is alarmed by reports of the July 11 attack on a compound popular with foreigners in Juba.
Fighting broke out again in early July between troops loyal to both men in Juba, in a move the worldwide community says would return the young nation back to an all-out civil war.
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This AFP file photo taken on February 10, 2015 shows child soldiers sit with their rifles at a ceremony for their disarmament in South Sudan overseen by UNICEF.
