Machar initially
travelled through the bush from South Sudan to Democratic Republic of Congo,
sustaining a leg injury on the way after an aide said his group had been
pursued by forces loyal to his rival President Salva Kiir.
From Congo,
Machar travelled to Sudan where he also received medical care. "He is now
in South Africa for medical treatment," his Nairobi-based spokesman, James
Gatdet Dak, told Reuters, adding that he was likely to stay there for about a
week.
He did not say
where he would go afterwards.
There was no
immediate comment from South African officials.
Political
rivalry between Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and Machar, a Nuer, sparked a civil war
that has often followed ethnic lines.
A peace deal
was signed in 2015, but it proved shaky from the outset and fierce fighting
flared in Juba in July of this year, just weeks after Machar had returned to
resume his post as vice president.
Clashes have
broken out elsewhere in South Sudan since then, raising concerns about a return
to all-out conflict.
(Additional
reporting by James Macharia in Johannesburg; writing by Edmund Blair; editing
by Mark Heinrich)
Reuters
Reuters
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