Machar says his troops may soon march on Juba
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July 29, 2016 (JUBA) – South Sudanese former First Vice President,
Riek Machar, who was recently removed in a controversial process after
fleeing the capital, Juba, has warned that his troops may soon take
over Juba unless a third party force was quickly deployed and undo the
“illegal” scrapping of the August 2015 peace agreement by President
Salva Kiir.
JPEG - 9.2 kb
South Sudan’s former vice-president turned rebel leader, Riek Machar,
says regional sanctions could effectively end conflict in the country
(Photo: Reuters)
Heavy fighting has been going on for the past three days in the bushes
around Juba as at least 10,000 troops loyal to President Kiir, backed
by tanks and helicopter gunships, have been battling forces loyal to
Machar in hunting him down from where he has been “hiding around
Juba.”
Hundreds of wounded soldiers have already been brought back to the
hospitals in Juba as a result of the fighting in the forests, with
hundreds more feared dead on both sides.
Machar has however warned for the first time that if the attacks
continued and a third force is not soon deployed to separate the two
rival armies, he will order his troops to match on to Juba, with the
aim to capture in order to restore peace and stability.
“My troops are ready to storm the capital Juba and take control,”
Machar told the Turkish Anadolu Agency on Friday.
Since the renewed violence between his fighters and government troops
on 8 July, Machar has been in hiding since 11 July, after four days of
fighting with his 1,300 troops, after his residence was bombed using
helicopter gunships to kill him.
“I went out of sight when I learned that the goal was to eliminate
me,” he said in a telephone interview.
While Machar called for a third party force to take over the security
of the capital, Juba, so that he could resurface and continue with the
implementation of the peace agreement as First Vice President,
President Kiir, probably seeing having an upper hand in the conflict
at least during the start of the fighting, rejected any deployment of
additional “single foreign soldier” in the capital.
Now with the fighting heavily escalating in many areas around Juba and
with the two sides bringing in reinforcements from other locations,
there are fears that the clashes may get closer to Juba and even renew
inside the capital itself.
Heavy artillery gunshots were heard on Thursday when forces loyal to
Machar reportedly came closer to Juba and clashed with President
Kiir’s forces at Luri, his private heavily guarded base and farm for
his cattle, but allegedly “got away with hundreds of cattle belonging
to President Kiir.”
Machar said the peace implementation will not succeed unless a third
force is deployed or he will take over the capital to restore
stability.
“The implementation of the comprehensive peace agreement will not be
possible without the deployment of IGAD peacekeeping forces to South
Sudan,” Machar added.
The opposition leader who leads his party and commands a separate
co-national army, added that his soldiers were more united than ever
and claimed the renewed fighting had been orchestrated by Kiir in a
bid to wreck the peace agreement signed in August last year.
On Monday, President Kiir replaced Machar as first vice president with
Taban Deng Gai. Machar declared the move “illegal and a conspiracy”
and renounced Gai as “not a member of the opposition group” since he
dismissed him from the party a day before his nomination.
He said he expected the African Union and the United Nations to oppose
Gai’s appointment and deem it null and void.
Gai, who first said his controversial nomination by a few of his party
officials was “temporary” to fill a “vacuum” until Machar returns to
Juba to give him back the seat, however, on Thursday declared that he
will stay in the position permanently until elections are conducted in
2018, and called on Machar to either come back to Juba and live as a
mere ordinary citizen or stay away and live in exile.
Machar’s opposition party has accused both President Kiir and his ally
Gai of the conspiracy to destroy the peace agreement by compromising
almost all of its significant provisions meant to change the country.
There are fears of a return to a “full scale war” in the country with
even more devastating impact than in 2013 given the ongoing escalation
of fighting around the capital.
(ST)
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