The former rebel and former South Sudanese Vice President Riek Machar, driven from the capital in July by heavy fighting recently left South Sudan and is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, have we learned corroborating sources.
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The UN was “aware” on Wednesday of Machar’s presence in Congo and contacted that country’s government, which requested the local mission “facilitate his extraction and transfer to the care” of Congolese authorities, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, told reporters in NY, according to a transcript. But renewed fighting in the capital Juba in July and Kiir’s decision to sack Machar from the post of his deputy dealt a blow to hopes of peace.
The UN official said Mr Machar needed to be airlifted to safety and that he had been given medical assistance.
While it was unclear who had transported Mr. Machar, The Associated Press reported that he was expected to address reporters in the Congolese capital later Monday.
It added that more than half of the children in the country do not attend schools, which is the highest proportion in the world.
Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) spokesman Mabior Garang de Mabior said the warlord “has now been safely evacuated to a safe country within the region”.
Machar led a rebellion against his rival President Salva Kiir before a peace deal installed him as vice president a year ago.
August 2015: The president signs an internationally-mediated peace deal under which, Machar will return as vice-president.
According to the Associated Press news agency, the United Nations had indicated Mr Machar was in danger and had assisted him.
The tensions exist between President Sava Kiir and his former vice president Riek Machar. “Renewed fighting and recruitment in South Sudan risks undermining much of this progress”, according to the statement.
So far, thousands of people have been killed and more than three million forced to flee their homes in the war, which broke out only two years after the country seceded from Sudan to become the world’s youngest nation.
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Reporting that 650 children have been recruited into armed groups in South Sudan since January, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNCEF) called today for an immediate end to recruitment and an unconditional release of all children by armed actors.
