The sacked vice-president of South Sudan has left the country, weeks after deadly clashes between his troops and government forces in the capital.
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And last month Juba was rocked by several days of heavy fighting between Kiir’s forces and those loyal to Machar.
Forsyth said that investigation and available data showed that half of children in South Sudan did not go to school, and it accounted for the highest proportion in the world.
Mr Machar had been “safely evacuated to a safe country in the region” after a “botched attempt to assassinate” him, a statement from the SPLA-IO said.
A spokesman for the DRC government, Lambert Mende, denied they had been in touch with any party on helping the former South Sudanese vice president but Haq said Machar was extracted from an area close to the border with South Sudan.
More than 650 children have been recruited into armed groups in South Sudan since the beginning of this year, the UN Children Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday, calling for an immediate end to such a recruiting practice.
The opposition leader whom they also consider as the legitimate first vice president in South Sudan is also expected to tour the IGAD member countries to share views on the way forward.
The split between Machar and President Salva Kiir in 2013 prompted the country’s long descent into civil war, which has left tens of thousands dead.
FILE – Female child refugees who escaped violence queue up inside Yida refugee camp, South Sudan, June 30, 2012.
A peace deal was signed between the two leaders in 2015, but has since been repeatedly violated repeatedly by fighting.
Some other members of the SPLM-IO, however, including Taban Deng Gai and Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, have remained in Kiir’s government and claim that the power-sharing agreement is still in place, only without the presence of Riek Machar.
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.
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South Sudan’s civil war has been characterised by war crimes and human rights abuses with civilians massacred – often along tribal lines – women and girls raped and children forced to become soldiers.
