{"id":29162,"date":"2016-10-05T03:44:31","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T03:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/dr-congo-deadline-for-removal-of-south-sudan\/"},"modified":"2016-10-05T03:44:29","modified_gmt":"2016-10-05T03:44:29","slug":"dr-congo-deadline-for-removal-of-south-sudan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/dr-congo-deadline-for-removal-of-south-sudan\/","title":{"rendered":"DR Congo deadline for removal of South Sudan fighters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{The UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been given a week to fly hundreds of South Sudanese fighters out of the country.}<\/p>\n<p>The men are loyal to South Sudan&#8217;s sacked Vice-President Riek Machar and crossed into the country with him in August following intense violence in the South Sudan&#8217;s capital, Juba.<\/p>\n<p>The 750 men have been disarmed and cared for by the UN mission.<\/p>\n<p>But Congolese officials say they are now a security risk.<\/p>\n<p>They are being housed in UN camps in the volatile east of DR Congo, near the city of Goma in North Kivu province.<\/p>\n<p>The demand from DR Congo&#8217;s government that the men be removed comes after a protest in Goma last Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The South Sudanese fighters have not been in any reported trouble since their arrival.<br \/>\nBut residents say they fear a repeat of the fallout of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda when perpetrators of the mass killings set up base in eastern DR Congo.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In April 1994, the population of North Kivu lived up to their legendary hospitality by welcoming Rwandan refugees,&#8221; Jean Paul Lumbu Lumbu, an activist in Goma, said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unfortunately, the same refugees turned into those FDLR rebels and became executioners of North Kivu residents. That is why we deeply fear the gathering of South Sudanese rebels into camps.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Correspondents say locals in Goma also fear the government of South Sudan, under President Salva Kiir, may exercise a &#8220;right of pursuit&#8221; across the border, exposing them to fresh conflict.<\/p>\n<p>The UN has confirmed that it has been contacted about the issue but has not commented on whether it will acting on the request to remove them by 10 October.<\/p>\n<p>Fighting between rival forces in Juba in July left hundreds of people dead less than a year after a peace deal was signed in South Sudan.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Machar, who had joined a unity government in April, was also aided by the UN in DR Congo and is now in residence in Sudan&#8217;s capital, Khartoum.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-15492 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/_91066477_gettyimages-522571338-1.jpg\" alt=\"Soldiers loyal to Riek Machar fled into DR Congo after clashes in July\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{The UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been given a week to fly hundreds of South Sudanese fighters out of the country.} The men are loyal to South Sudan&#8217;s sacked Vice-President Riek Machar and crossed into the country with him in August following intense violence in the South Sudan&#8217;s capital, Juba. [&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":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-29162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","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":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","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":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29162","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=29162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29162"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=29162"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=29162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}