Tanks shelled and helicopters strafed Juba, the capital city, a few weeks ago in a fight between Mr Kiir’s Dinka tribe and their rival Nuer, led by Riek Machar, the vice-president. He has been replaced by another official in his party, Taban Deng, but that appointment has not been accepted by many of Machar’s supporters.
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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.
He told the house that deploying KDF to the Africa’s youngest nation, will help restore peace, given that the country’s security is still warring, despite commitments shown by President Salva Kiir and new vice president John Deng. His departure puts that peace deal into disarray at the same time as the country’s humanitarian crisis worsens.
Machar fled the capital when he was reportedly lured to the presidential palace to get killed, but escaped.
Lam Jok, a Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition representative in Kenya, said that the continued government offensive against Dr Machar’s forces is an indication that the peace agreement will no longer hold and that the country has virtually gone back to civil war. Machar leaves Juba with his troops, saying he would return only if an global peacekeeping force guarantees his safety.
It is thought that Machar has recently fled the country as he was in danger and assisted by the United Nations, according to the Associated Press. Overall, around 16,000 child soldiers had been recruited since the country’s initial descent into civil war in December 2013. The fighting in Yei indicates that violence has shifted to a new front following Machar’s disappearance.
The South Sudan government is also being called on by the United Nations to investigate these human rights violations and prosecute those involved, reveals The Sudan Tribune.
August 2016: The opposition figure flees the country.
Around 70,000 South Sudanese have crossed the border into Uganda since the July clashes, adding to the more than 2.3 million people who have been displaced since the civil war began, according to the U.N. The new refugees have overwhelmed humanitarian agencies that are already short on funding.
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He said the U.N. Mission in South Sudan played no part in Machar’s arrival in the DRC.
