July 21st 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s main armed opposition leader, Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon has left the Sudanese capital Khartoum for Addis Ababa, a spokesman allied to him said in a statement.
Puok Both Baluang, the group’s director of information and public relations said in the statement extended to Nyamilepedia this morning that Machar left for Addis Ababa for an expected meeting with a UN official without giving more details.
“The SPLM/SPLA (IO) would like to inform members and the public at large that, the Chairman and Commander in Chief of the people’s movement SPLM/SPLA (IO), H.E Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon and his accompanying delegation left Khartoum to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this morning at about 11:00 am, on a visit expected to last several days, to meet with the Under-Secretary General and Special Representative of the Secretary General of United Nations on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SRSG-SVC), Mrs. Pramila Patten, at her invitation,” the statement reads.
Machar has been under house arrest in Khartoum since June last year. Shortly before that, he was just released from a similar detention In Pretoria, South Africa, which he has been for almost two years.
Last week, the SPLM-IO asked the region to release him as he is now a signatory to the revitalized peace agreement signed in September last year between opposition groups and the government.
He also demanded in a letter to President Salva Kiir Mayardiit that he is allowed to visit Juba for an expected meeting between him and President Salva Kiir Mayardiit.
