South Sudan rebel leader Machar returns to Khartoum

August 12, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – The chairman of South Sudan’s armed opposition movement (SPLM-IO), Riek Machar returned to Sudan capital, Khartoum after talks on the country’s peace process.

Both Baluang, the SPLM-IO’s director for information, said Machar was in Ethiopia having been invited by the Under-Secretary General and Special Representative of the Secretary General of United Nations on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten.

“Dr. Machar and Mrs. Patten discussed issues related to peace and sexual violence in South Sudan,” he said in statement issued Monday.

The South Sudanese rebel leader, Baluang said, also separately met Gedu Adargachew, the Ethiopian Foreign Affairs minister, Evgeny Terekhin, Russia’s ambassador to Ethiopia and the Permanent Representative to the Africa Union and other relevant stakeholders in the course of supporting the implementation of the Revitalized Agreement on Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS).

“The SPLM/SPLA (IO) is committed to the implementation of the (R-ARCSS), in letter and spirit, as the only sure way to attain lasting peace in our beloved country,” further stressed the statement.

South Sudan descended into civil war in late 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Machar of attempting a coup, allegations the latter dismissed.

In September last year, however, South Sudan’s warring factions signed a revitalized peace agreement to end the country’s civil war. The revitalized peace accord stipulates that there shall be a transitional government formed after eight months of the pre-transitional period.

In accordance with the peace agreement, opposition leader Machar will be reinstated as South Sudan’s Vice President.

(ST)