The first Vice President of South Sudan Riek Machar, a longtime rival of President Salva Kiir, was placed in a home custody, his party says.
The armed convoy, led by the highest security officials, including the defense minister, entered Machar’s residence in Juba’s capital, and disarmed his bodyguards late Wednesday, said the Nations of Sudan’s Opposition People (SPLM/IO).
“Technically speaking, Dr. Machar is home, but security officials have initially tried to take him away,” said Reath Muoch Tang, chairman of the Party’s Foreign Relations Committee.
The government has yet to comment.
The UN warned that South Sudan was on the verge of returning to the civil war after the conflict escalation between Machara and the president who was being built for weeks.
The two leaders agreed in August 2018 to end the five -year civil war in which nearly 400,000 people were killed.
But in the last seven years, their relationship has become all tense in the midst of ethnic tension and sporadic violence.
Splm/Io said that Machar was detained with his wife, Angelina Teny, who is also the Minister of the Interior in the country.
“An arrest warrant was delivered to him under vague accusations,” Tang said in a statement, calling the action “by a false violation of the Constitution and a revitalized rest agreement.”
“The arrest of the first vice -president without the right proceedings undermines the rule of the law and threatens the stability of the nation,” he added.
The UN mission in southern Sudan warned that the latest world nation risked “losing” hard-received gains in the last seven years “if he returned to the” state of war “, after a report on Machar’s custody.
“Tonight, the country’s leaders stand on the verge of reuniting in a widespread conflict,” in a statement on Wednesday.
2018 Peace Agreement. “Not only will southern Sudan devastate, but it will also affect the whole region,” he added.
British and US embassies reduced their diplomatic staff and invited their citizens to leave the country, while Norway and German embassies closed their business in Juba.
Escaling tensions come in the midst of renewed conflicts between the forces of the loyal two rivals in the northern city of Nasir in the state of Gornja Nil rich in oil.
