South Sudan’s former vice president and opposition leader Riek Machar “is in the care” of the authorities in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the United Nations has said, several weeks after he withdrew from the capital Juba during fierce fighting with government troops.
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In July, clashes between Machar forces and those of President Salva Kiir claimed over 300 lives and prompted fighters loyal to the former rebel leader to flee the city.
If the exact location of Machar DRC remained unclear Thursday, a UN spokesman in New York, Farhan Haq, said that Mr Machar had been supported by the UN Mission in DRC ( MONUSCO) before being handed over to the Congolese authorities.
Hundreds of people died after Machar and President Salva Kiir’s guards fought each other, sparking days of violence in July.
A South Sudan presidential spokesman, Ateny Wek Ateny, said President Salva Kiir had no reaction to the United Nations helping Machar. Sudan’s rebel leader Machar has fled the country, a spokesman for his party said Thursday Aug. 18.
Since the fighting last month, Kiir has sacked Machar from his post and replaced him with Taban Deng Gai, a former opposition negotiator who broke ranks with Machar.
South Sudan had dealt with a civil war from December 2013 until a fragile peace deal was signed between the government and rebels in August 2015.
The U.N. document indicates that the recruitment of children took place shortly after the U.N. Security Council a week ago approved sending an additional 4,000 peacekeepers to the East African country to protect civilians after renewed fighting in the capital, Juba, last month.
But South Sudan’s government said it opposed the deployment and it is not clear how the mission can go ahead without its co-operation.
“Renewed fighting and recruitment in South Sudan risks undermining much of this progress”, according to the statement. The government has not yet accepted the force, saying that deploying it without South Sudan’s approval would be a violation of the country’s sovereignty.
He was reacting to media reports quoting United Nations sources in the Democratic Republic of Congo and at the headquarters of the United Nations in NY about the departure of Machar from South Sudan and his subsequent arrival to Congo on Wednesday.
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Machar’s spokesman Gatdet Dak said on Thursday that forces linked to President Salva Kiir “have been hunting [Machar], so for his safety he made a decision to relocate”.
