The Guardian / UK: Riek Machar, South Sudan’s former vice president and opposition leader, is in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN has said, weeks after he withdrew from South Sudan’s capital, Juba, during violent clashes with government troops.
The UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC became aware of Machar’s presence in the country on Wednesday and contacted the Congolese government, who then asked the mission to extract Machar from his location, a UN spokesman said.
“Riek Machar has been handed over to the authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We’re not in a position to confirm his location,” Farhan Haq said.
A spokesman for the DRC’s government, Lambert Mende, denied it had been in touch with anyone about helping the former South Sudanese vice president. But Haq said Machar was extracted from an area close to the border with South Sudan.
“We can confirm that an operation was undertaken by the Monusco UN mission on humanitarian grounds to facilitate the extraction of Riek Machar, his wife and 10 others from a location in the DRC in support of the DRC authorities,” Haq said, adding that Monusco had been considered the best suited party to move Machar safely.
A statement issued by the leadership of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement In Opposition said Machar had left on Wednesday to a “safe country within the region”.
Machar led a two-year rebellion against forces loyal to his longtime rival President Salva Kiir before the two sides reached a peace deal in August 2015. Under the deal, Machar returned to Juba in April to resume his role as vice president.
But fighting flared last month, leading Machar to withdraw with his forces from Juba in mid-July.
An opposition spokesman, James Gatdet Dak, writing on his Facebook page, said its fighters had “successfully relocated our leader to a neighbouring country where he will now have unhindered access to the rest of the world and the media”.
Machar had sustained a leg injury from weeks of walking in the bush but it was not serious enough to require medical attention, Dak said.
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.
The UN told Kiir that any political changes must be consistent with the peace deal, which stated that the vice president must be chosen by the South Sudan Armed Opposition.
