Decree gets cautious approval but analysts fear former allies turned enemies are not yet ready to cooperate to end fighting
South Sudan’s rebel groups are cautiously celebrating the sudden reappointment of their exiled leader as the country’s vice president, although it is not clear whether he will return home to take up the post.
Kier and Machar have presided over a conflict that has displaced more than two million people. Photograph: JULIO BRATHWAITE/UNMISS/HANDOUT/EPA
President Salva Kiir restored Riek Machar to the post in a surprise decree, but opposition figures have criticised the government for its “random” approach to implementing a recent peace deal.
Machar abandoned the vice-presidency in December 2013 as civil war broke out between the government and rebel forces loyal to him. Since then, the conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than two million people.
A peace deal signed in August 2015 was supposed to stop the fighting, but implementation has been patchy: a recent African Union report noted at least five separate ceasefire violations, including one incident in which 50 civilians suffocated to death after being locked into a shipping container by government forces.
Though a key condition of the deal was the creation of a “government of national unity” with Machar as vice-president, rebels said the method was worrying.
“We welcome the appointment even though we expect the government to show more commitment on outstanding issues,” said Colonel Roman Nyarji, Machar’s spokesperson.
Nyarji identified three key areas of concern: Kiir’s decision to expand the number of states in South Sudan from 10 to 28, which Machar says violates the spirit of the peace agreement; the recent amendment of the constitution which expanded the president’s powers; and the implementation of various security arrangements envisaged in the peace agreement.
It remains uncertain whether Machar intends to take up the vice-presidency.
“If I get the support needed for the implementation of security arrangements, I think within a few weeks I will be able to take up my position,” Machar told news agencies on Friday.
