{"id":24571,"date":"2016-04-13T02:50:51","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T02:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/south-sudan-deputy-rebel-leader-arrives-in-juba\/"},"modified":"2016-04-13T02:50:31","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T02:50:31","slug":"south-sudan-deputy-rebel-leader-arrives-in-juba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/south-sudan-deputy-rebel-leader-arrives-in-juba\/","title":{"rendered":"South Sudan deputy rebel leader arrives in Juba"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Alfred Ladu Gore back in Juba after two years of fighting in move that may herald return of rebel leader Machar.}<\/p>\n

The deputy chief of a South Sudanese rebel group has returned to the capital Juba as part of a peace deal, raising hopes that the opposition leader will return next week.<\/p>\n

Alfred Ladu Gore, a former general and minister, flew into the capital’s airport after more than two years fighting in the bush.<\/p>\n

“I am very happy to be home … our advance team came here to proclaim peace and I have come to reaffirm that peace will not be reversed,” Gore said, after arriving with a delegation of around 60 people.<\/p>\n

Gore, though, condemned the arrest of 16 of his supporters who had been mobilising people to welcome him.<\/p>\n

“Peace means freedom to express your mind, to gather together even if it means you disagree,” he said.<\/p>\n

He was welcomed by Akol Paul, a senior member of the ruling party. “His arrival today signifies that indeed the war has come to an end,” Paul said.<\/p>\n

A 1,370-strong force of opposition soldiers and police completed also arrived in Juba over the weekend.<\/p>\n

They are to supposed to ensure the security of rebel chief Riek Machar – named vice president in February – who is due to arrive in Juba next week.<\/p>\n

Civil war erupted in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Machar of planning a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings that have split the country along ethnic lines.<\/p>\n

Machar has said he will come to Juba on April 18 to form a unity government, which would be the first time he has returned to the capital since he fled two years ago.<\/p>\n

The arrival of the rebels – especially Machar – would be a major symbolic step, though many warn that the practical implementation of the peace deal will be a long and tough task.<\/p>\n

Tensions remain high, with the rebels accusing the army of boosting its presence in the capital.<\/p>\n

Under the peace deal, Juba is supposed to be officially demilitarised to within a 25 kilometre radius, apart from a number of units given an exception. Other troops are meant to gather in special “cantonment” sites.<\/p>\n

The United States on Monday condemned army attacks on rebel positions, “which destroyed a declared opposition cantonment site” near the town of Wau in the country’s northwest.<\/p>\n

Washington said there were “credible reports” rebel troops had also attacked the army and civilians.<\/p>\n

“There is no military solution to the conflicts in South Sudan,” the US said . “We call on all parties to fulfil their commitments to implement the provisions of the peace agreement in full.”<\/p>\n

\"Riek<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Alfred Ladu Gore back in Juba after two years of fighting in move that may herald return of rebel leader Machar.} The deputy chief of a South Sudanese rebel group has returned to the capital Juba as part of a peace deal, raising hopes that the opposition leader will return next week. Alfred Ladu Gore, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[100],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-africa","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24571"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24571"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}