South Sudan armed opposition claims to remove vice president

However, Kiir and Machar have yet to integrate their forces.

Nyarji Roman, a spokesman for Machar’s side who is also in hiding, said Saturday the move is a “conspiracy” to overthrow Machar. The peace agreement stipulates that if the first vice president is away for any reason, he would delegate a person to act on his behalf, according to Dak.

The rift between Machar and Taban Deng Gai has raised the prospect of further turmoil after months of fighting, as members of a faction led by Gai threatened to replace their leader.

A peace agreement was sealed in August 2015, but the country remains chronically unstable.

The talks resulted into the signing of the Peace agreement to resolve the conflict in South Sudan.

Machar and President Salva Kiir fell out in 2013, little more than two years after South Sudan became independent, when Kiir accused his vice president of plotting against him. The government also organized demonstrations in Juba and in some states to reject the deployment of additional foreign forces with senior officials vowing to fight them should they deploy.

“Taban promise us that he will be the first vice president of the Republic of South Sudan and if the first vice president returns he will step down” he added.

He had pledged to guarantee his rival’s safety.

He said the temporary nomination of Taban Deng Gai to act as FVP in the absence of Dr. Riek Machar was in conformity with the ARCISS which talked about the position in provision 6.4 when it falls vacant.

Machar has issued a directive all the members of his group and military commanders to cut off communication with Gai who had earlier reported to have accepted to assume the former rebel leader’s responsibility as first vice-president in the unity government. The number-two in the ranks of the armed opposition was at odds with Machar over the deployment of African Union forces to Juba, which Machar had hoped could facilitate his return to the capital.

Machar in a letter yesterday said that Taban Deng has “defected” to the SPLM faction headed by Salva Kiir, therefore he dismissed him from the movement.

“Machar will return to Juba once a third party force is deployed”.

The former rebel leader left Juba on July 9 following five days of intense fighting that claimed lives of 272 people and displaced more than 30,000 others.