South Sudanese rebel leader flees country

Riek Machar, the former vice president of South Sudan and opposition leader in a civil war that has killed thousands, has left the country, a spokesman said. Machar’s wife and 10 others were also transported in an operation to which the leader consented, Haq said. “He was handed over to the DRC authorities”, said Farhan Haq.

United Nations deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Wednesday the fact-finding report is expected to be completed this week and will not be made public. He later said Machar had crossed the border into neighboring Congo and was airlifted to the capital, Kinshasa.

Earlier on Thursday, a South Sudanese opposition spokesman had said Machar went to a “safe country within the region” and was expected to hold a news conference on Friday. But the government has not accepted the force, saying that such a deployment would be a violation of South Sudan’s sovereignty without President Kiir’s approval.

Their signing of the roadmap, which had already been signed by the Sudanese government, had raised hopes of a breakthrough after successive rounds of abortive talks.

Machar had returned to Juba in April as part of a deal to halt more than two years of fighting that broke out after Kiir sacked Machar from the post of vice-president.

February 2015: The government calls off general elections due in June that year because of the ongoing conflict. According to the Associated Press, another United Nations document revealed that a senior politician in President Salva Kiir’s administration allegedly oversaw the recruitment of children as young as 12 into the armed forces. His troops bombarded the house where Machar was staying in Juba and pursued him and his bodyguards as they fled Juba and beyond.

August 2016: The opposition figure flees the country.

“The dream we all shared for the children of this young country has become a nightmare”, said UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Justin Forsyth, speaking from Nairobi following a trip to Bentiu and Juba in South Sudan.

It’s unclear how many children were taken, but armed groups – both government and rebels – often resort to blackmail, threatening to seize a family’s cattle, to recruit children for war. The humanitarian group says children continue to be recruited and used by armed groups and forces despite widespread political commitment to end the practice. The document says a senior politician appointed by President Salva Kiir led the recruitment of an entire village of boys using intimidation.