Gov’t claims Machar is not under arrest in Juba

JUBA – South Sudan government has claimed that the country’s main armed opposition leader and First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny is not under detention in Juba, despite a statement by IGAD office in Juba this week that the regional body was under consultations to release him.

This comes more than one month after the group’s military chief, General Simon Gatwech Dual, wrote to the regional body, IGAD, which mediated the revitalized peace agreement, seeking permission to release Machar so that he can meet his generals.

The minister of information and government spokesman Michael Makuei said in a statement that Machar is not under arrest, slamming opposition officials and activist who insists that he is being detained in Juba.

“As to where these people got their information is up to them. He has not been restricted,” Michael Makuei said as quoted by Eye Radio.

“If he was under arrest or restricted, why should he be performing the official duties? These are stories concocted by sycophants that do not want peace for South Sudan,” he added.

Makuei’s claims come barely two days after IGAD’s liaison office in Juba said it had wrote to the regional body seeking Machar’s freedom.

Machar has been under house arrest since 2016. He was briefly freed in 2018 to participate in the revitalized peace agreement and was rearrested following his return to Juba.

Defense minister and chairperson of the SPLM-IO Security and Defense Committee Angelina Teny had in recent months said her husband is still being detained as his passport has not yet been returned to him.