Riek Machar issues war call from exile

Khartoum- South Sudan’s rebel leader issued a call for renewed war with the government this weekend, declaring the collapse of an internationally-backed peace deal.

Former vice president Riek Machar is in exile in Khartoum where he fled following fighting in the South Sudanese capital Juba in July.

In a statement received by AFP on Sunday, Machar said he intended to “wage a popular armed resistance against the authoritarian and fascist regime of President Salva Kiir in order to bring peace, freedom, democracy and the rule of law in the country.”

Machar’s leadership of a faction of rebels, known as the SPLA/IO, is in question with former ally Taban Deng Gai having taken his position in government and international backers of the peace plan urging that efforts to end the war should move ahead, with or without Machar.

It is unclear whether armed rebel forces and allied militias on the ground in South Sudan follow Machar or Deng.

Machar said the international community should “declare the regime in Juba as a rogue government and a spoiler of peace that is threatening regional and international peace and security.”

John Clement Kuc, a spokesman with the rebel faction in Juba that follows Deng dismissed Machar’s declarations. “This group don’t want peace. They believe in resolving issues through war,” he said.