February 6th 2019 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s First Vice President designate, Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon will return to the capital Juba in late May as part of a peace agreement he signed with President Kiir in Addis Ababa last year, a UN envoy told a news conference in New York on Tuesday.
Under the deal signed by Machar and Kiir in September, the rebel leader will be reinstated to his previous position as First Vice President and will have a share of nine ministers in the revitalized TGoNU.
Also under the terms of the agreement, the revitalized transitional government should be in place by May 2019 which mark the end of an eight-month pre-transitional period.
Speaking to reporters in New York on Tuesday, David Shearer, the head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), said Machar assured him during a meeting in the Sudanese capital Khartoum that he will return in late May.
“He told me that he is committed to coming back still at the end of May,” he told a reporters at the UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday.
He further said although there are still a range of issues still not resolved by the parties, the agreement offers the best chance to ending the most brutal civil war that has killed thousands and displaced millions.
“There are some tricky issues still to be resolved but, it’s an agreement that is there that we feel offers the best chance in a long while for moving South Sudan in the right direction,” he further stressed.
South Sudan government and opposition groups signed last September in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa a revitalized peace deal that aims at ending the ongoing civil war.
Machar in late October last year returned to Juba to attend a government-organized peace celebration which was also attended by many regional leaders.
His return in May will be the second of its kind in less than a year.
