Photograph — rfi. AFRIQUE

More than two years after fleeing the country, South Sudanese rebel leader, Riek Machar, has not only returned home for the first time since conflict broke out in 2013, he has also been sworn in as vice president. Machar will be resuming a position he held before he was dismissed by the president of South Sudan, Salva Kiir.

In what seemed like its worst conflict since its secession from Sudan in 2011, tens of thousands were killed and millions more displaced by rebel groups loyal to the then former Vice President of South Sudan. But despite news that both Kiir and Machar signed a ceasefire agreement in 2014, there were speculations that they did so under duress and, as a result, the clashes raged on.

While Machar’s swearing-in may be a step towards ending a war that has killed tens of thousands, it is also important to explore what his return could mean for South Sudan.

A portrait of both severity and a deep-seated urge of nationalism—Dr Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon.

Born in Leer County, Unity State in 1953, Riek Machar is an engineer from his first degree in England, and a PhD holder in Philosophy and Strategic Planning. Machar is no stranger to perseverance and hard work. These are traits that have undoubtedly served him well over the decades, especially through the strife his nation has experienced as well as the loss of his first wife and unborn child.

For Machar, his tribal affiliation held no bearing in the pursuit of national integrity and equal rule of law, and his brief but poignant movement against tribal marking displays this belief. From his days as deputy chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement, his ultimate desire was always the prize of total independence, respect for human rights and the democratisation of state affairs regarding the people of southern Sudan.

His foremost questions on the state of the land in regards to tribalism, development and fair distribution of resources, land-grabbing by the government as well as seeking good governance and justice, went unanswered. Hence, this drive set him at odds with the group’s leader at the time, John Garang. A leader whose calls for a secular, but united northern and southern Sudan seemed to be lacking.

Any attempt to investigate the rift between President Kiir and Machar would have to go back at least five years to 2011. The tensions began when Machar started envisioning himself as a more fitting leader in what was then the semi-autonomous region of southern Sudan. He says the deputy would attempt to undermine Kiir,” said Jok Madut Jok, the head of the Sudd Institution, a think tank in South Sudan. 

In 1991, Marchar broke away from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) led by John Garang, to form the SPLA-Nasir. His thirst for southern Sudan to embrace the heterogeneity of the oil-blessed nation and to have all voices heard drove him to break away and form a new arm of the movement. His desire was eventually slaked with their nation’s independence, achieved in 2011.

South Sudan has been born, after much loss.

Unfortunately, this newly formed country’s travails were to continue. In 2013, tensions between the acting president, Salva Kiir, and his vice, Riek Machar, culminated in a coup accusation and subsequent evisceration of the cabinet, pushing the nation back into bloody anarchy, this time, tainted by ethnic divides – where his rebel forces are noted to be culpable for as much suffering as Kiir’s.

Two years later, following a shaky accord, his reinstatement on the 27th of April 2016 as Vice President of South Sudan is both an occasion to rejoice, and a call to unending work.

South Sudan has a very rough road ahead. There is a lot of foresight and constructive thinking required to darn the tattered vestiges of a working and inclusive government, a comatose economy and dilapidated infrastructure to revive, as well as the broken souls of a trampled populace to mend with the glue of unity and brotherhood in truth.

All this and more is expected of Riek Machar; once a front-runner in the pursuit of the nation’s birth, now he is needed to help stabilise its rise from the mire of infighting to the united dream he promoted. His brand of nationalism, although easily turned bloody, can be useful to a new country; that deep rooted love for the land and all its people can be a powerful tool in uniting heterogenous societies.

Machar’s responsibilities remain with harder decisions to come. But with careful planning, willingness to work together and an overarching desire for the people’s progress, his efforts can make South Sudan bright again. Machar is capable of leading the young nation through stagnation that he is jointly responsible for. However that can only be possible if he rises above ethnic divisions and any sense of entitlement that he may have, and truly put to action his words that are consistent with federalism.

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