Kenya is sending former Prime Minister Raila Odinga to South Sudan as a special envoy to help defuse a rift between President Salva Kiir and longtime rival Firsts Vice President Riek Machar which threatens to drag the country back to war.
Kenyan President William Ruto, who chairs the East African Community bloc, said he had spoken to Kiir about the detention of Machar earlier this week and was sending a special envoy to help de-escalate the situation and report back.
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Odinga’s spokesperson, Dennis Onyango, confirmed the former prime minister would travel to Juba on Friday.
Machar’s spokesperson, Puok Both Baluang, said Odinga’s appointment was a welcome gesture “as long as it is in line with de-escalation of the situation.”
Machar’s party also issued a statement urging all involved parties to resume dialogue and said it was committed to staying in the unity government.
Machar was put under house arrest in the capital Juba on Wednesday night, his party said, in effect voiding a 2018 peace deal that ended a five-year civil war and brought the two men into a fragile power-sharing government.
Their administration has been slow to adopt key provisions of the peace pact, such as national elections and the unification of their two forces into one army.
“(Machar) is fine, but nothing changes. He’s still under house arrest,” Baluang said by telephone.
Machar’s detention took South Sudan “one step closer to the edge of collapse into civil war,” a spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday.
Citing the deteriorating security situation, the European Union said it had decided to temporarily reduce its staff presence in South Sudan. Western countries, including the United States, Britain, and Germany, have already closed embassies or reduced operations in South Sudan.
Reuters/Shakirat Sadiq
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