Machar regains South Sudanese passport after 7 years

JUBA – South Sudan’s First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny has regained access to his South Sudanese passport after seven years since the outbreak of war in December 2013 which has killed thousands and displaced millions, a spokesman allied to the main armed opposition leader told Sudans Post on Sunday.

Machar fled Juba following deadly clashes within the presidential guards that later on resulted in the formation of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Sudan People’s Liberation Army In Opposition (SPLM/SPLA-IO) led by him.

Since then, the government in Juba under President Salva Kiir Mayardit decided to block his passport to undermine his movements between countries, but was able to do so using a Ethiopian passport.

Speaking to Sudans Post on Sunday morning, Puok Both Baluang, the Press Secretary in the Office of the First Vice President and Director General of the SPLM-IO National Committee for Information and Public Relations, said Machar has restored his passport, an important document that could allow him to move freely.

“This is to announce that H.E Dr. Riek Machar Teny, the First Vice President, Chairman and Commander in of the SPLM/SPLA (IO) has received his South Sudanese passport,” he told a Sudans Post reporter in Juba.

“The Ethiopian passport was given to him by the IGAD at that time when he had no passport and the ITGoNU refused to give him the passport. At that time, Ethiopian was the head of the IGAD and that is why the IGAD gave him an Ethiopian passport,” Baluang explained.

The senior SPLM-IO official however said Machar has no schedule to travel given his busy schedule over the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement signed by him and President Salva Kiir Mayardit in 2018.

“At the moment he has no plan to travel. He is still here in Juba and he wants to oversee the implementation of the Revitalized Agreement on Resolution of Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS),” he said.