South Sudan’s exiled former vice president and opposition leader says he’ll reluctantly take his movement back to all-out war if a peace deal with the government cannot be restored.
Rieck Machar, the leader of the Sudan People Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), told VOA in an exclusive interview Thursday that his movement is reorganizing itself to stage what he called a popular armed resistance against the government of President Salva Kiir.
At the same time, he said he wants to revive the August 2015 peace deal between the SPLM-IO and the government.
He said the “troika" of countries that backed the peace deal – the United States, Britain and Norway – should call for an urgent meeting of South Sudanese political parties to address the country's political instability and ongoing conflict.
“They have to find a way of resuscitating this agreement," he said. "Once it is resuscitated and people accept that there have been violations, then the need for reinstituting the transitional government becomes the first step.’’
Machar spoke to VOA's “South Sudan in Focus” program by phone from South Africa, where he flew this week to seek unspecified medical treatment.
The former vice president fled the capital, Juba, in July during clashes between government and opposition forces that killed some 300 people.
He said 70 of his fighters were killed by the South Sudan army as he and his fighters made their way to the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
“When we were pushed out, I withdrew the troops,” Machar said. “We moved to South Baria, then we moved to Lainy area, then from there to the areas of Mundri, from Mundri to Maridi, and then moved south to the Congo border. That [journey] took exactly 37 days and [when] we add the three days of fighting [in Juba], we were under fire for over 40 days.’’
Machar said throughout his journey to Congo, he was constantly contacting Kiir in a bid to end the fighting, which erupted at the presidential palace and later engulfed Juba town. He said he could not continue communicating with Kiir while being pursued by members of the South Sudanese air force and infantry.
“I decided to withdraw to a country [where] I will be secured in and then find a way of having that meeting with President Salva,” Machar said.
After Machar fled the capital in July, United Nations aid agencies reported fighting in Western Equatoria state, where thousands of families were displaced from their homes. Local chiefs in the area told VOA reporters that the South Sudan Army ransacked villages, beating anyone they found in the villages around Mundri and Amadi.
The South Sudan Army “had ground forces pursuing us,” along with four helicopter gunships, Machar said. “… They also had one drone and two surveillance planes that were daily on our heads, locating where we were marching and then the helicopter gunship will follow [and] bombard us.’’
At the time, Machar was still South Sudan's first vice president.
Machar and about 750 of his fighters were evacuated in late July from the South Sudan border by U.N. peacekeepers in the DRC. He and a few of his soldiers were then flown to Sudan's capital, Khartoum for medical treatment in August.
Following the fighting in Juba, Kiir accused Machar of wanting to kill him and overthrow the transitional Government of National Unity. He told the Kenya Television Network that Machar had a pistol during an early July meeting at J1, the South Sudanese presidential palace.
A government source said fighting at the presidential palace was kindled by Machar’s spokesman in Nairobi through a July 8 Facebook post, saying that Kiir had arrested Machar in the palace and Kiir’s men were planning to kill the vice president.
Machar and Kiir appeared visibly shaken during a July 7 address to the nation carried by South Sudan Broadcasting Corp. The two leaders told South Sudanese that they did not know the cause of the fighting between Machar’s bodyguards and South Sudan presidential guards.
Members of Machar’s party dismissed the government’s version of the fighting’s source.
According to Machar, Kiir misled the Kenyan journalist.
“Oh my God, this is a big lie," he said. "I, Riek Machar do not carry pistol or pistols or guns since 1991 when I began to lead either a party or troops. I don’t carry a pistol. He [Kiir] knows that very well. Why would I carry a pistol when he has called me for a meeting?’’