Bilal said Machar, who was also a rebel leader in South Sudan, was in need of “immediate medical treatment” when he arrived in the Sudanese capital but he did not say when that occurred.
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Last week, a spokesman for Machar announced that he had fled across the border into Congo after weeks of walking through the bush.
Osman said his government has notified South Sudan, adding, “The health condition of Dr. Rick Machar is now stable and he will stay in the country under full medical supervision until he leaves the country for a destination of his choice to complete his medical treatment”.
“Dr. Riek Machar’s health is stable now and he will remain in the country under comprehensive healthcare until he leaves to a destination of his choice to complete his treatment”, he added.
Ties between Khartoum and Juba, the capital of South Sudan, have been strained since then amid suspicions that Sudan is backing Machar in a war that has killed tens of thousands and left more than two million people homeless.
According to his spokesperson, James Gatdek Dak, the politician relocated to Khartoum in order to receive specialised medical treatment.
But Congo’s government last week said it had no knowledge of Machar being there.
Machar, at one point in the two-decade-long conflict, led a splinter group that signed a unilateral peace deal with the Khartoum government in 1997 that give him an official post in Sudan.
His absence further weakened the peace deal, with Kiir quickly replacing Machar as vice president in a contested move.
Many of his bodyguards were shot dead in the July fighting that erupted outside the presidential compound where Machar and former rival President Salva Kiir were meeting to discuss recent tensions.
South Sudan is estimated to produce around 150,000 barrels of oil a day – down from 350,000 at independence in 2011.
South Sudan’s civil war began in December 2013 between armed supporters of rivals Kiir and Machar. Taban Deng is a former chief negotiator of the SPLM/A – IO in the August peace deal, which was being brokered by the IGAD-Plus countries.
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The U.N. Security Council voted on Friday to authorise sending an extra 4,000 troops to the country to bolster the existing U.N. mission, which South Sudan said it was considering.
