SOUTH SUDAN: Rebel leader Machar back in Juba after two years

South Sudan rebel leader and former vice president, Riek Machar, has returned to the capital, Juba, more than two years after he fled the country after the collapse of a 2016 peace deal. He returned on Wednesday to take part in a peace ceremony. Machar fled to neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo in 2016. He […]

South Sudan rebel leader and former vice president, Riek Machar, has returned to the capital, Juba, more than two years after he fled the country after the collapse of a 2016 peace deal.

He returned on Wednesday to take part in a peace ceremony.

Machar fled to neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo in 2016. He later travelled to South Africa, where he was held under house arrest until earlier this year.

Last month, he and President Salva Kiir signed a new peace deal in Ethiopia in the latest attempt to end the five-year civil war that erupted in the world’s youngest country in December 2013.

On Wednesday, Kiir said Machar’s imprisoned South African adviser, William Endley, and a rebel group spokesman, James Gatdet, would be released on Thursday as part of the peace deal.

Endley will be deported to South Africa upon release, Kiir said.