(31 Oct 2018) For the first time since fleeing the war-torn country more than two years ago, South Sudan's opposition leader Riek Machar returned on Wednesday to take part in a nationwide peace celebration.
Under the new peace deal signed on September 12, Machar will once again serve as President Salva Kiir's deputy.
This will be the third time the two men will try to work together since the country erupted into civil war in 2013.
The last attempt failed when fighting broke out in the capital Juba in July 2016 and Machar escaped on foot.
Machar is joined in Juba for the celebrations by South Sudan's other opposition groups as well as regional heads of state including Sudan's President Omar el-Bashir, Ethiopia's first female President Sahle-Work Zewde, Uganda's President Museveni, Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and Egypt's Premier Mostafa Kamal Madbouly.
Five years of fighting in South Sudan has crippled the country, killing almost 400,000 people from violence and disease, according to a recent report, and displacing millions.
The latest peace deal has been met with skepticism by the international community, including the United States, Norway and the UK, the troika, which ushered South Sudan into independence in 2011.
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