A spokesman for South Sudan’s opposition and rebel group says that their leader Riek Machar has fled the country.
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Riek Machar has gone to a safe country in the neighboring East African region, Mabior Garang, a spokesman for the SPLM-IO party, said in a posting on Facebook.
The U.N. Security Council has responded by voting to send 4,000 regional peacekeepers into the South Sudanese capital, but the government of President Salva Kiir Mayardit has so far refused to accept the force – arguing that its deployment without his approval would violate the nation’s sovereignty.
In accordance with the 2015 peace deal, which received global backing, Machar returned to Juba, the capital, in April to resume his post as deputy to his rival, President Salva Kiir.
Mr Gai met President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi in what the South Sudan deputy ambassador to Kenya Jimmy Deng said was part of planned shuttle diplomacy to get the region to accept the recent changes in leadership.
In July, clashes between the South Sudan government and opposition forces took place in Juba, leaving 272 people dead.
“[No] one knows where he is, whether he left South Sudan or still inside the country”. He said Machar had sustained a minor leg injury following several weeks of trekking in the wilderness.
Machar and fighters supporting him left the city, putting the country’s peace deal in limbo.
United Nations deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Wednesday the fact-finding report is expected to be completed this week and will not be made public.
He was subsequently replaced as vice-president on July 25 by Taban Deng Gai, a former friend and ally.
“Renewed fighting and recruitment in South Sudan risks undermining much of this progress”, according to the statement.
A South Sudan presidential spokesman, Ateny Wek Ateny, said President Salva Kiir had no reaction to the United Nations helping Machar.
Kiir also said the country’s military was not “completely subordinate to the authority of a civilian government” and that the government “will show zero tolerance” toward sexual assault.
December 2013: Fighting erupts after Kiir accuses Machar of plotting to overthrow him.
Sacked South Sudan first vice-president, Dr Riek Machar, is seeking medical attention in the Democratic Republic of Congo after surviving in the bush in Western Equatoria for almost a month.
Tens of thousands of people were killed in the fighting and more than two million people were displaced.
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Machar disappeared from Juba following the July fighting.
