South Sudan’s rebel leader has fled the country and is expected to emerge after weeks in hiding later Thursday to speak to the press, a spokesman for his party said.
Former First Vice President Riek Machar has gone to a safe country in the neighboring East African region, Mabior Garang, a spokesperson for the SPLM-IO party, said in a posting on Facebook.
After clashes with President Salva Kiir’s army in the capital, Juba, in early July, Machar and rebel forces left the city, putting the country’s peace deal in limbo. Hundreds of civilians died in the fighting.
In his absence, Machar last month was replaced as first vice president after a disputed change of leadership in his party.
He has said he would not return to Juba until a regional force is deployed in the capital to help restore calm. Dozes of his bodyguards were shot dead in the July fighting after gunfire erupted outside the presidential compound where Machar was meeting with President Salva Kiir about recent tensions.
Last week, the U.N. Security Council voted to send 4,000 regional peacekeepers to Juba. The government has not yet accepted the force, saying that deploying it without South Sudan’s approval would be a violation of the country’s sovereignty.
South Sudan’s civil war began in December 2013, and a peace deal was signed in August 2015. The agreement has been violated repeatedly by fighting.
Both sides in the fighting have been accused of human rights abuses.
