South Sudan Rebel leader Machar flees the country

Posted by: Kyeyune Andrew Jonathan in World news August 18, 2016

A spokesperson for South Sudan’s opposition and rebel group says that their leader Riek Machar has fled the country.

Check also: South Sudan Government Rejects UN Proposal To Send More Peacekeepers

Machar’s whereabouts have been unclear since the fighting flared in Juba, between July 8 and 11 and led to his outgunned and outnumbered forces being chased from the city by government troops.

Mabior Garang of the SPLM-IO said on Thursday that Machar had gone to a safe country within the region.

“Machar has now been safely evacuated to a safe country within the region, he will hold a press conference within the next 24 hours,” Mabior Garang de Mabior, a spokesman for Machar’s SPLM-IO party said in a statement.

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The statement did not reveal which country Machar had gone to!

In July, Machar was removed as South Sudan’s first vice president after a disputed change of leadership in his party. He was subsequently replaced as vice president on July 25 by Taban Deng Gai, a former friend and ally.

After clashes with President Salva Kiir’s army in the capital of Juba on July 8th, Machar and rebel forces left the city, putting the country’s peace deal in limbo.

Hundreds of civilians died in the July fighting.

A peace deal signed between the government and rebels almost a year ago has so far failed to end the conflict. last month Juba was rocked by several days of heavy fighting between Kiir’s forces and those loyal to Machar.

On Wednesday, the United Nations launched a probe of a hotel attack in South Sudan in which soldiers raped women and assaulted aid workers, while UN peacekeepers allegedly failed to act. Last week, the UN voted to send 4 000 regional peacekeepers to Juba.

The government has not yet accepted the force, and Machar said he will not return to the capital until it is deployed.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said late Tuesday he was “concerned about allegations that UNMISS (the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan) did not respond appropriately to prevent this, and other grave cases of sexual violence committed in Juba.”

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