JUBA: South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar pledged to embrace peace at a ceremony marking his return to the troubled country on Wednesday. “All guns must stop immediately,” said Machar at a peace ceremony in the capital Juba, also attended by President Salva Kiir and members of the international community.
Machar’s return to the troubled country two years after he fled comes after the rebels and the government signed a peace deal in September to end five years of brutal civil war.
South Sudan — the world’s newest country — descended into chaos in 2013 after Kiir accused Machar, then his deputy, of plotting a coup. Machar fled Juba on foot to neighbouring Congo in July 2016.
“It is high time for the leaders of warring parties to be committed to the agreement and as leaders we should be exemplary,” Machar said, calling on the government to release detained opposition members and lift the state of emergency in some parts of the country. Thousands of people lined the streets of Juba in celebration, with revellers dancing and singing about peace. There was high security in the city however, with heavily armed troops deployed and military planes flying overhead.
Kiir is also due to give a speech and there were addresses from representatives of the African Union and United Nations.
“For those of us who have seen first-hand the impact of the fighting on the ground and have met those who suffer most, we would not have believed six months ago that we would be at this point today,” said David Shearer,
head of the UN Mission in South Sudan.
“There is much hard work ahead to realise this agreement to ensure that it is fully implemented,” he said.
Several African heads of state including Sudan’s President Omar El Bashir, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and the Egyptian prime minister will give addresses, as well as the presidents of Somalia and Ethiopia.
Many of the countries in attendance were instrumental in South Sudan’s peace talks. September’s peace deal allows for the creation of a transitional government, with Machar to be reinstated as vice president.
However many international observers were sceptical after its inking and Machar’s party had previously expressed reservations on some points of the deal. Previous agreements have collapsed after warring parties failed to respect them and numerous ceasefires have been broken.
The war has left tens of thousands of people dead, and about 4 million South Sudanese have fled the fighting. Rights groups have reported
gross human rights violations
on both sides. — dpa
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