{"id":24829,"date":"2016-04-23T03:52:21","date_gmt":"2016-04-23T03:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/un-chief-urges-south-sudan-s-riek-machar-to\/"},"modified":"2016-04-23T03:52:05","modified_gmt":"2016-04-23T03:52:05","slug":"un-chief-urges-south-sudan-s-riek-machar-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/un-chief-urges-south-sudan-s-riek-machar-to\/","title":{"rendered":"UN chief urges South Sudan&#8217;s Riek Machar to return to Juba"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{Machar had been expected to return to the capital on Monday.}<\/p>\n<p>UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday pressed South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar to return to Juba &#8220;without delay&#8221; and begin work in a transitional government.<\/p>\n<p>Machar had been expected to return to the capital on Monday, in line with a political agreement aimed at ending the two-year war, but differences over security arrangements in Juba delayed his arrival.<\/p>\n<p>Ban said President Salva Kiir&#8217;s government had agreed to a compromise proposal on the arrangements for Machar&#8217;s return and said this breakthrough should help with the swift formation of the new unity government.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Maintaining a spirit of cooperation will be crucial as the country&#8217;s leaders begin the work of reversing the years of destruction this conflict has brought upon the people of South Sudan,&#8221; he said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Ban urged Machar to travel to Juba &#8220;without further conditions which could jeopardise the fragile peace process and prolong the suffering of the South Sudanese people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Under the peace deal, Machar was to return to the post of vice president in a the new 30-month transitional government leading to elections.<\/p>\n<p>The latest stumbling block concerned the number of machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades that rebel troops protecting Machar would be allowed to carry.<\/p>\n<p>South Sudan&#8217;s war began in December 2013, when Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup.<\/p>\n<p>The conflict has torn open ethnic divisions and been characterized by horrific rights abuses, including gang rapes, the wholesale burning of villages and cannibalism.<\/p>\n<p>At the request of the United States, the Security Council met Monday and expressed &#8220;serious concern&#8221; at Machar&#8217;s failure to return.<\/p>\n<p>International powers, including the African Union, the European Union, China, Britain and the United States, gave both Machar and Kiir a Saturday deadline to resolve differences.<\/p>\n<p>Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than two million have been driven from their homes since war broke out in December 2013.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-11895 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/666200-01-02.jpg\" alt=\"Sudan People&#039;s Liberation Army-in opposition (SPLA-io) soldiers gather at a containment site in the south Sudanese capital, Juba, on April 7, 2016. \" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Machar had been expected to return to the capital on Monday.} UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday pressed South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar to return to Juba &#8220;without delay&#8221; and begin work in a transitional government. Machar had been expected to return to the capital on Monday, in line with a political agreement aimed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","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":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","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\/24829","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=24829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24829"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24829"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}