JUBA – A senior South Sudan main armed opposition group official has said that the country’s First Vice President and SPLM-IO leader, Dr. Riek Machar Teny is 100 percent a free man, almost two weeks after regional bloc, IGAD, said there were no any restrictions imposed by the regional bloc against him.
Since 2016, Machar has been under a regional confinement starting from South Africa, to Sudan and south Sudan when he returned to teh country earlier last year. The main armed opposition group has described his arrest as illegal and has on several occasions urged regional countries as well as the IGAD which mediated the revitalized peace agreement to release him.
Speaking to Sudans Post this afternoon, Dut Majokdit, a member of the SPLM-IO’s National Liberation Council (NLC) said Machar is free and can travel anywhere he wish saying he is no longer under any kind of travel restriction.
“I can tell you that Dr. Riek Machar is 100 per cent a free man now. He can travel anywhere he wish, he can travel to Sudan and anywhere in the region or in the world,” the senior opposition official said from the capital Juba.
Last month, the IGAD announced in a communiqué that its meeting of the heads of state and government “underscored that currently there are no travel restrictions of any kind imposed by IGAD on the First Vice President of the Republic of South Sudan, Dr Riek Machar Teny.”