Off the wire
• Central gov't to cut travel, vehicle, reception budget  • China's urbanization rate at 56.1 pct  • Feature: Giving China's poorest children a better start in life  • Feature: Centuries-old library to reopen in Morocco after renovation  • Palestinian gov't lauds UNESCO decision to adopt Islamic name of holy site  • Spain sets public deficit target at 3.6 pct of GDP for 2016  • Spain's Caixabank announces second takeover bid for Portugal's BPI  • China hits back at U.S. over military plane landing on South China Sea reef  • French navy rescues 214 migrants in Mediterranean  • Filthy, polluted cybersphere not in anyone's interests, Xi says  
You are here: 　 Home

Return of S. Sudan's Machar to Juba shrouded in mystery

Xinhua, April 19, 2016 Adjust font size:

The much-awaited return of South Sudan's vice-president designate Riek Machar to the capital, Juba, has been delayed for a second time because of logistical reasons, his spokesman said on Tuesday.

Spokesman William Ezekiel said Machar, who was initially due on Monday to take up his post as vice-president, could not make it to Juba due to flight clearance hurdles.

"Once again we are deeply sorry to announce cancellation of Machar's coming today to Juba. Its issues related to logistics. There is another demand that came that Chief of General Staff Simon Gatwech Dual's plane must be cleared by government to fly in South Sudan airspace," Ezekiel told journalists at Juba airport.

The rebel leader was due in Juba at around 3:00 p.m. Tuesday after delaying it by a day, to take up the post of VP, which is a key part of the peace process aimed at ending more than two years of civil war.

Ezekiel said Machar, who fled Juba at the start of the conflict in December 2013, was supposed to come after the said SPLA-IO general Dual had arrived.

Dual was supposed to travel with other high ranking military officers from Pagak to participate in the swearing in of Machar on Tuesday.

"Machar's next arrival date is suspended until further notice," Ezekiel said.

Machar's advance team and 1,370 protection troops have arrived in Juba despite continued clashes between the two rival troops in Bahr el Ghazal and Equatoria regions.

The civil war in the oil-rich country, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011, erupted in December 2013 when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Machar of planning a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings that have split the country along ethnic lines. Enditem