Machar served as the first Vice President of South Sudan under current President Salva Kiir Mayardit from 2011 until his dismissal in 2013 following a power struggle between the two leaders, Efe news reported.
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“At that point the UN Mission contacted the authorities in the DRC who in turn requested MONUSCO [UN’s mission in the DRC] to facilitate his extraction and his transfer to the care of the DRC”.
The operation took place near South-Sudan’s border with Machar’s consent, the Spokesman said.
Political differences between Mr. Machar and Mr. Kiir ignited the civil war in December 2013 – and they only agreed to settle their differences under intense global pressure, signing a peace deal last August.
Riek Machar, whose whereabouts have been unknown since clashes in the country’s capital Juba in July, is reportedly in exile in another “safe country” in east Africa and will give a press conference shortly, aides said.
Last year, President Barack Obama issued a partial waiver to South Sudan from the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008, allowing the U.S.to continue military assistance to support South Sudan’s peace process.
“President Salva Kiir’s forces have been hunting him, so for his safety he chose to relocate”, Gatdet Dak said, adding his new location would give him “access to the rest of the world and media” to explain his position. Dozes of his bodyguards were shot dead in the July fighting after gunfire erupted outside the presidential compound where Machar was meeting with President Salva Kiir about recent tensions.
The U.N.’s decision to help Mr. Machar could widen a rift between the government of South Sudan and the U.N. mission there ahead of the deployment of an additional 4,000 peacekeepers under the U.N. mission, which the government has called unnecessary and a violation of sovereignty.
Separately, UNICEF says at least 650 children have joined armed groups in South Sudan this year alone.
Today in Juba security prevented circulation of the newspapers Al Maugif and Nation Mirror, reportedly because of news about Machar, sources said.
Fighting between the two factions of the SPLM broke out in the capital Juba in early July, threatening a return to the 2013-2015 civil war. The agreement has been violated repeatedly by fighting.
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A spike in the forced recruitment of child soldiers in South Sudan could be imminent, the United Nations’ children’s agency said on Friday, amid fears that the world’s youngest nation is on the brink of renewed civil war.
