South Sudan’s first Vice President Riek Machar has accused rival military leaders who announced he had been deposed as party and armed forces leader of trying to block the country’s peace process.
The military wing of his SPLM/A-IO movement said on Wednesday that it had removed Machar, who helped push his partner, President Salva Kiir, to a peace deal in 2018 and the subsequent formation of a unity government, for undermining reforms.
But in a rejoinder issued late on the same day, Machar said those who had issued the statement were no longer members of the movement’s military command council.
“The declaration was engineered and facilitated by peace spoilers,” Machar said in a statement issued after a meeting of his party’s Political Bureau.
The announcement of the removal of the first vice president is seen as a move that could pressure an already fragile peace process.
Machar’s wife Angelina Teny serves as defence minister.
The party’s chief of staff, First Lieutenant General Simon Gatwech Dual, was nominated interim party leader, according to the military wing’s statement.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 but descended into fighting two years later when forces loyal to Kiir and Machar clashed in the capital.