{"id":24718,"date":"2016-04-19T02:06:42","date_gmt":"2016-04-19T02:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/south-sudan-rebel-chief-riek-machar-fails-to\/"},"modified":"2016-04-19T02:02:55","modified_gmt":"2016-04-19T02:02:55","slug":"south-sudan-rebel-chief-riek-machar-fails-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/south-sudan-rebel-chief-riek-machar-fails-to\/","title":{"rendered":"South Sudan rebel chief Riek Machar fails to return amid \u2018logistical issues\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Riek Machar had been expected to arrive in Juba on Monday from his stronghold of Pagak after more than two years of conflict.}<\/p>\n

South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar\u2019s highly-anticipated return to the capital Juba, to take up the role of vice president, was delayed Monday, his spokesman said, citing \u201clogistical reasons\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are committed to the peace agreement, but there have been logistical issues and the first vice president, Riek Machar, will come tomorrow,\u201d spokesman William Ezekiel said.<\/p>\n

Mr Machar\u2019s return to Juba and swearing-in as President Salva Kiir\u2019s deputy will mark an important step in a floundering August 2015 deal to end the country\u2019s civil war.<\/p>\n

The agreement is seen as the best hope yet for ending more than two years of fighting that have left the world\u2019s youngest nation in chaos and pushed it to the brink of famine.<\/p>\n

Mr Machar previously served as Mr Kiir\u2019s deputy until he was fired just months before the start of war in December 2013.<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in a conflict marked by numerous atrocities, with more than two million forced from their homes and nearly six million in need of emergency food aid.<\/p>\n

The war broke out in December 2013 when Mr Kiir accused Mr Machar of planning a coup, claims he denied, triggering a cycle of retaliatory killings that divided the desperately poor country along ethnic lines.<\/p>\n

The rebel leader was expected to arrive in Juba on Monday from his tribal stronghold of Pagak in the east of the country, but despite the latest hitch spokesman Ezekiel said the rebels remain committed to peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here to implement all the peace agreement. We have been missing deadlines but we will fulfil in the end,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The red carpet had been rolled out at Juba\u2019s airport on Monday morning, the sentries lined up and the dignitaries were assembling when Machar\u2019s no-show was announced, disappointing many for whom his arrival marks a major tangible step towards peace.<\/p>\n

MILESTONE<\/p>\n

Overnight, posters welcoming Machar, some reading \u201cReconciling, uniting the nation,\u201d had been torn down, said Ezekiel.<\/p>\n

Machar\u2019s arrival will be a milestone in the peace process but experts warn that implementing the deal will be a long and arduous task.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will allow the formation of the transitional government, the most significant step in the implementation of the peace agreement,\u201d said Casie Copeland from the International Crisis Group think tank, while warning warned that the conflict would likely continue.<\/p>\n

Several militias, driven by local agendas or revenge, do not obey either Machar\u2019s or Kiir\u2019s commands.<\/p>\n

Tensions are high ahead of Machar\u2019s return.<\/p>\n

A 1,370-strong armed rebel force arrived in Juba this month as part of the peace deal, while the government says all but 3,420 of its troops have withdrawn from the city.<\/p>\n

The opposing forces are based in camps scattered in and around the capital, while other forces are not allowed within a 25 kilometre radius of Juba.<\/p>\n

The army has denied opposition claims that it has secretly returned truckloads of its troops to the capital.<\/p>\n

The UN has 11,000 peacekeeping troops in South Sudan, many of them guarding the 185,000 civilians who have spent the past 28 months inside UN bases, too afraid to leave in case they are attacked.<\/p>\n

Both the government and rebel forces have been accused of perpetrating ethnic massacres, recruiting and killing children and carrying out widespread rape, torture and forced displacement of populations to \u201ccleanse\u201d areas of their opponents.<\/p>\n

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

{Riek Machar had been expected to arrive in Juba on Monday from his stronghold of Pagak after more than two years of conflict.} South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar\u2019s highly-anticipated return to the capital Juba, to take up the role of vice president, was delayed Monday, his spokesman said, citing \u201clogistical reasons\u201d. \u201cWe are committed […]<\/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":[228],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-africa","byline-afp"],"bylines":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","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":71}],"contributors":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","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":71}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24718","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=24718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24718"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24718"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}