By Parach Mach
JUBA, South Sudan (AA) - Rebel leader Riek Machar has decided to seek political asylum abroad rather than return to the capital Juba for implementing the peace process, which he claims President Salva Kiir is stalling, according to his spokesman.
Spokesman James Gatdet Dak said in a statement late Wednesday Machar, the former vice president who went into hiding three weeks ago, would only return to Juba after a neutral regional force was deployed in the city.
Dak confirmed Machar had been successfully relocated to outside the country on Wednesday, exactly a year after he inked a peace deal with his rival Kiir. “This is after more than one month after President Kiir and his forces attempted to eliminate him, right from the Palace in Juba, in his residence at Jebel and in the bushes around Juba,” the spokesman said.
“His relocation also came exactly a year after he signed an agreement on the resolution of the conflict in South Sudan on August 17, 2015, in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa,” he added.
The spokesman did not disclose the name of the neighboring country to which Machar had been shifted. He, however, said the rebel leader was now safe after a month of continued daily attacks and bombardments with helicopter gunships around Juba in Central Equatoria.
Meanwhile, Edmond Yakani, a civil society activist who heads the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, told Anadolu Agency Machar's relocation should not be used as an opportunity to return to civil war
"Wherever he [Machar] is, he should refrain from violence and negotiate his way back to his old post as South Sudan first vice president," Yakani said, adding: "The host country should play a neutral role by not giving Machar military support to wage another war."
A peace deal was reached last August and a transitional government of national unity was formed in April by Kiir and Machar after tens of thousands of people were killed in fighting, and over 2 million people were rooted from their homes since December 2013.
In early July, fighting broke out again between troops loyal to both men in Juba, in a move the international community says would return the young nation back to an all-out civil war; 300 died in the fighting, which the UN said involved targeted ethnic killings and rapes, mostly by soldiers loyal to Kiir.
The United Nations last week renewed the mandate of its peacekeepers and added additional 4,000 protection forces with tough mandate to protect civilians in South Sudan, which the government said would undermine the country’s sovereignty.