Machar still not allowed to travel – Angelina Teny
Chairman of the SPLM-IO Dr. Riek Machar meets senior officials upon arrival in Juba (Photo: File)
March 9th 2020 (SSNN) – South Sudan’s main armed opposition leader Dr. Riek Machar Teny is still under house arrest despite an early statement by IGAD special envoy to South Sudan Ismail Wais that the First Vice-President was free, her wife Angelina Teny who is a senior SPLM-IO figure said.
IGAD’s special envoy to South Sudan Ismail Wais said that the restrictions which were imposed on Machar by the region in 2016, which among other things barred him from speaking to the public or media were lifted when the unity government was formed late February.
“He is the First Vice President of South Sudan, no matter existed before. He can now enjoy his rights,” he said, a claim the opposition dismisses as false.
However, Machar’s wife Angelina Teny, a key stalwart in the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPM-IO) said it is not true, adding that they not received a word to this effect.
Teny said Machar passport was confiscated and torn and he has since been relying on Ethiopian travel documents. He is not allowed to travel anywhere in the region or to his constituency, she adds.
“He has been traveling on an Ethiopian passport under the courtesy of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, because when he came from South Africa, there was nothing to travel with,” she said during an interview with the BBC.
She says restrictions have put the former rebel leader in a “difficult situation” because he has to be on phone all the time to keep in touch with his forces in order for the ceasefire to hold.
President Salva Kiir and his bitter rival Riek Machar formed a unity government on February 21, following pressure from the region and the international community.
Related power arrangement between Kiir and Machar twice collapsed in fighting during the conflict that began in 2013 and killed nearly 400,000 people.
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