S Sudan Assigns Arch-Rival Machar as Vice-President

Local Editor

South Sudan's president Salva Kiir named his arch-rival Riek Machar as vice-president, after fighting for more than two years of civil war.

"I, Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the Republic of South Sudan, do hereby issue this Republican Decree for the appointment of Dr. Riek Machar Teny as the first vice President of the Republic of South Sudan," said the decree issued late on Thursday night.

The appointment was agreed as part of an August 2015 peace deal, which has been repeatedly broken.

For his part, Machar, who was vice-president from 2005 until he was sacked in 2013, and who has yet to return to Juba since fleeing when war broke out in December 2013, welcomed the decree.

Civil war erupted in December 2013 when Kiir accused his former deputy Machar of planning a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings that split the poverty-stricken, landlocked country along ethnic lines.

Despite clashes and repeated failure to meet a string of deadlines in the August deal, both Kiir and Machar said they remain committed to the peace deal.

Kiir and Machar are former rebel leaders who rose to power during Sudan's 1983-2005 civil war between the north and the south, after which South Sudan seceded in 2011 to form the world's youngest country.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team