Dr. Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon (born 26 November 1952) is a South Sudanese politician who serves as the First
Vice President of South Sudan.
Political life
In February 2020, Machar was re-sworn in as first vice president following a revitalised peace agreement with
Salva Kiir, the current President of South Sudan. He is also the head of the rebel faction known as
SPLM-IO (Sudan People's Liberation Movement-In Opposition) that was founded in 2014 following the 2013 war outbreak and has been historically in opposition to Kiir. Between April and July 2016 Machar served as the First Vice President of South Sudan. He is designated to be the First Vice President according to the new "revitalized" peace agreement signed in September 2018.Dr. Riek Machar will take up the post of First Vice President when the new unity government is formed, initially in February 2019, but later delayed until February 2020.
Machar obtained a PhD in strategic planning in 1984 and then joined the rebel
Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) during the
Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005). Machar fell out with the SPLM/A leader
John Garang
John Garang de Mabior (June 23, 1945 – July 30, 2005) was a Sudanese politician and revolutionary leader. From 1983 to 2005, he led the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) after the Second Sudanese Civil War, the comprehensive peace agreeme ...
in 1991 and formed a splinter group, the
SPLM/A-Nasir. In 1997, he made a treaty with the Government of Sudan and became head of the government-backed
South Sudan Defense Force (SSDF). In 2000 he left the SSDF and formed a new militia, the
Sudan People's Defense Forces/Democratic Front (SPDF), and in 2002 rejoined the SPLA as a senior commander. After the death of
John Garang
John Garang de Mabior (June 23, 1945 – July 30, 2005) was a Sudanese politician and revolutionary leader. From 1983 to 2005, he led the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) after the Second Sudanese Civil War, the comprehensive peace agreeme ...
in July 2005, Machar became vice-president of the autonomous Southern Sudan. He became vice-president of South Sudan on 9 July 2011 when the country became independent, but was dismissed from office by President
Salva Kiir Mayardit on 23 July 2016. Machar was re-appointed as First Vice-President of South Sudan on 22 February 2020 as part of the Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity.
Early career
Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon was born in
Leer,
Unity State on 26th November 1952, the 27th son of the chief of
Ayod and Leer.
He was brought up as a member of the Presbyterian church.
Machar belongs to the Dok section (Dok-Chiengluom) of the
Nuer Bentiu people.
He trained as an engineer at
Khartoum University, and obtained a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the
University of Bradford
The University of Bradford is a public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be created in Britain, but ...
in 1984.
Machar has been called a ''tuut dhoali/Doth in English'', which may be translated "adult boy", meaning uninitiated and literate.
He has tried to transcend tribal divisions, and at one time attempted to ban initiation marks.
However, in his struggle with
John Garang
John Garang de Mabior (June 23, 1945 – July 30, 2005) was a Sudanese politician and revolutionary leader. From 1983 to 2005, he led the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) after the Second Sudanese Civil War, the comprehensive peace agreeme ...
he exploited ethnic rivalries between the Nuer and
Dinka people
The Dinka people ( din, Jiɛ̈ɛ̈ŋ) are a Nilotes, Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan with a sizable diaspora population abroad. The Dinka mostly live along the Nile, from Jonglei to Renk, South Sudan, Renk, in the region of Bahr el Gh ...
.
Machar married
Emma McCune
Emma McCune (3 February 1964 – 24 November 1993) was an expatriate British foreign aid worker in Sudan who married then-guerrilla leader Riek Machar. She was killed when hit by a matatu in Kenya whilst expecting her first child.
Biography
M ...
, a British aid worker. She died in a car accident in
Nairobi
Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ...
in 1993 at the age of 29, while pregnant.
Machar's second wife,
Angelina Teny
Angelina Jany Teny was born in 1953 in what is today Unity State, South Sudan. She is a South Sudanese politician who was a state minister of Energy and Mining in the Khartoum-based Government of National Unity between 2005 and 2010. She ran for el ...
, is one of the leading women politicians in South Sudan. She was state minister of Energy and Mining in the transitional government (2005–2010).
Machar was a rebel leader with the
Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLM/A) headed by
John Garang
John Garang de Mabior (June 23, 1945 – July 30, 2005) was a Sudanese politician and revolutionary leader. From 1983 to 2005, he led the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) after the Second Sudanese Civil War, the comprehensive peace agreeme ...
from 1984 until he fell out with Garang in 1991. As Zonal Commander of Western Upper Nile, in 1986 he entered into an agreement with
Baggara chiefs.
Machar led forces that attacked and overran
Melut in 1989.
That year he was able to visit his family, which was based in Britain, for the first time since the civil war started.
In 1990 Machar was based at Leer.
Later he was appointed SPLA Regional Commander for a region that extended from the Ethiopian border in the east to
Renk in the north and to
Ayod and
Waat
Waat is a village in the northeastern part of South Sudan. It is located in Nyirol County, Jonglei State
Jonglei State is a state of South Sudan with Bor as its centre of government and the biggest city. Jonglei state comprises nine counties ...
in the south.
Machar disagreed with the SPLA leader John Garang over objectives. Where John Garang at first wanted a secular and democratic but united Sudan in which the southerners would have full representation, Machar wanted a fully independent South Sudan.
In August 1991 Riek Machar,
Lam Akol
Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin, is a South Sudanese politician of Shilluk descent. He is the current leader of National Democratic Movement (NDM) party. He is a former high-ranking official in the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), and subsequently bec ...
and
Gordon Kong
Gordon Kong Chuol is a former militia commander in South Sudan, who fought for the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and later for the forces led by Riek Machar during the Second Sudanese Civil War.
Independence fighter
Gordon Kong Chuol bel ...
announced that John Garang had been ejected from the SPLM.
Kong Chuol is from the Eastern Jikany Nuer and Lam Akol is from the
Shilluk people.
The breakaway faction, based in
Nasir
Nasir ( ar, ناصر, translit=Nāṣir) is a masculine given name, commonly found in Arabic which can mean "helper" or "one who gives victory" (grammatically the Stem I masculine singular active participle of consonantal verb root ''n-ṣ-r''). ...
until 1995 and then in Waat and Ayod, was called the SPLM/A-Nasir faction from 1991 to 1993. As part of
SPLA-Nasir, he was involved in the
Bor massacre
The Bor massacre was a massacre of an estimated 2,000 civilians in Bor on November 15, 1991 during the Second Sudanese Civil War. The massacre was carried out mostly by Nuer fighters from SPLA-Nasir, led by Riek Machar, and the militant group know ...
, where 2000 mostly civilians were killed in Bor in 1991 while tens of thousands died in the following years from the resulting famine.
The Bul Nuer Anyanya-2 militia at
Mayom under
Paulino Matip and the Lou Nuer Anyanya-2 militia at
Doleib Hill
Doleib Hill was a mission station established by the American Inland Mission in southern Sudan, located approximately south of the city of Malakal, on the northern bank of the Sobat River, then in the former Upper Nile province of Sudan, the pres ...
under
Yohannes Yual declared for Riek.
Kerubino Kuanyin and Faustino Atem Gualdit, Dinkas from Bahr el-Ghazal, had been among the founders of the SPLM but had fallen out with John Garang and had been jailed. They escaped and joined Machar in 1993, with their forces making an important addition to the formerly Nuer-dominated SPLA-Nasir. Kerubino became deputy Commander in Chief.
After this addition by forces from other ethnic groups, Riek's movement and force was called the SPLA-United from 1993 to 1994.
In September 1993, President
Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya held separate talks with Garang and Riek Machar.
In October 1993 the US Congress hosted a meeting between Garang and Machar. The two seemed to agree about various subjects related to a cease fire and reconciliation between the two factions, self-determination and opposition to the Khartoum regime, but Machar disputed Garang's authority and refused to sign a joint declaration.
Machar dismissed Lam Akol from the SPLA-United in February 1994. Lam Akol returned to
Kodok in the government-held region of
Upper Nile state.
From 1994 to 1997 Machar's movement was known as the South Sudan Independence Movement/Army (SSIM/A).
Although seeking independence for South Sudan, the group received covert support from the Government of Sudan as it fought the SPLA between 1991 and 1999 in attacks that became increasingly violent and ethnically motivated.
Early in 1995 hostilities between the SSIM and SPLA, which had taken several thousands of civilian lives, were temporarily suspended. Machar dismissed Kerubino Kuanyin and Commander
William Nyuon Bany from the SSIM on the basis that they had signed military and political agreements with the government of Sudan late in the previous year, and that they had attempted to form a government-supported faction in the SSIM.
During the 1990s Machar skillfully developed support among the eastern Nuer, the Jikany and the Lou, taking advantage of SPLA unpopularity with the Jikany and drawing on prophetic tradition to make his case.
In 1996 Machar signed a Political Charter and in 1997 the
Khartoum Peace Agreement with the government. Under this agreement he was assistant to
Omar el-Bashir, President of Sudan, and President of the Southern States Coordinating Council. He was also made commander in chief of the
South Sudan Defense Force
The South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF), formerly the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), is the army of the Republic of South Sudan. The SPLA was founded as a guerrilla movement against the government of Sudan in 1983 and was a ...
(SSDF), which included most of the ex-rebels who had signed the Khartoum agreement.
Return to SPLM
There was growing tension between Riek Machar and Paulino Matip's South Sudan Unity Movement (SSUM), which became engaged in forcibly removing civilians from the
Block 5A
Block 5A is an oil concession in South Sudan.
After oil field development began during the Second Sudanese Civil War, Block 5A was the scene of extensive fighting as rival militias struggled for control.
Out of an original population of 240,000, a ...
oil concession area, and assisting in clearances from other oil blocks.
In 1998–1999, Matip's fighters and government troops clashed several times with Machar's SSDF forces in a struggle for control of the Unity state oilfields.
Matip's fighters forced
Tito Biel
Tito Biel Chuor (or Chol, Chor) was a high-ranking commander in the South Sudan Defense Forces (SSDF) during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005).
Tito Biel, of the Dok section of the Nuer people, was originally in the Sudan People's Liber ...
, a high-ranking SSDF commander, to evacuate
Leer early in 1999. Tito Biel later went over to the SPLA.
Riek Machar's failure to prevent the government from forcibly displacing civilians from the oil-producing areas of
Unity State turned the Nuer against his leadership.
Machar's SSDF began to receive ammunition from the SPLA as of June 1999.
In 2000 at a meeting of leaders in
Koch
Koch may refer to:
People
* Koch (surname), people with this surname
* Koch dynasty, a dynasty in Assam and Bengal, north east India
* Koch family
* Koch people (or Koche), an ethnic group originally from the ancient Koch kingdom in north east I ...
he finally resigned from the government of Sudan and created a fresh militia named the
Sudan People's Defense Forces/Democratic Front (SPDF).
At risk in his own homeland of the Dok Nuer, Riek moved his base of operations to the eastern
Jikany
The Jikany Nuer are a section of the Nuer people who mainly live in the eastern part of Upper Nile state in South Sudan, particularly around Nasir in Nasir County.
Civil war
During the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005), between 1993 and ...
area.
In January 2002 he signed an agreement with John Garang to merge the SPDF into the SPLA, and was given command of the Dok Nuer within the SPLA.
The civil war ended in January 2005. In August Machar became Vice President of the Government of Southern Sudan and SPLM Co-Chair of the Joint Executive Political Committee.
When South Sudan became independent, in July 2011 he was appointed first vice president of the new republic.
On 15 July 2011 Machar represented South Sudan at the ceremony when his country's flag was raised outside
United Nations headquarters
zh, 联合国总部大楼french: Siège des Nations uniesrussian: Штаб-квартира Организации Объединённых Наций es, Sede de las Naciones Unidas
, image = Midtown Manhattan Skyline 004.jpg
, im ...
in New York.
South Sudan politics
Following the
independence of South Sudan, Machar was the vice president of the country. In 2012, he publicly apologized for his part in the Bor massacre as he prepared to pave way for taking the helm of SPLM.
By February 2013 Machar publicly stated his intentions to challenge President Kiir. In July 2013, he, and the entire cabinet, was dismissed from office. Machar said that Kiir's move was a step towards dictatorship. These events in turn led to the
South Sudanese Civil War
The South Sudanese Civil War was a multi-sided civil war in South Sudan between forces of the government and opposition forces. In December 2013, President Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar and ten others of attempting a coup d'éta ...
.
After the civil war started, Machar turned towards a "shadowy" group of European arms dealers to arm his forces. Little is known about them. An exception was the Franco-Polish arms dealer
Pierre Dadak who at the time of his arrest at
Ibiza
Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its la ...
villa on 14 July 2016 was negotiating to sell Machar 40,000 AK-47 assault rifles, 30,000 PKM machine guns and 200,000 boxes of ammunition.
Return to vice-presidency and second sacking
In late August 2015, a peace agreement was signed between the government and Machar's rebels. The agreement would make Riek Machar the vice-president again.
In April 2016, as part of the peace deal, Machar returned to Juba and was sworn in as vice-president. Machar fled the capital after
renewed fighting between the Kiir loyalists and his own loyalists Juba in July 2016. After a 48-hour ultimatum given by the president to him for returning to Juba to progress with the peace agreement talks passed, the SPLA-IO in Juba appointed lead negotiator
Taban Deng Gai to replace Machar and the government accepted him as acting vice-president. Machar said any talks would be illegal because he had fired Gai.
Current status
In October 2017, Machar was under
house arrest
In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if al ...
in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...
.
His house arrest status was lifted in March 2018.
Machar's house confinement in South Africa was also criticized by the media. Machar returned to Juba in October 2018 following a peace deal that was signed in September 2018. As of May 2019 he was living in Khartoum, the capital of South Sudan's northern neighbor Sudan, following a six-month delay in the implementation of a power sharing deal that was meant to take effect on 12 May 2019.
Machar was appointed First Vice-President of South Sudan on 22 February 2020 as part of the Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity.
In 2021, he hinted that the
2023 South Sudanese general election would be postponed.
Literary work
*
Personal life
On 18 May 2020, Machar and his wife tested positive for
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...
.
References
Sources
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Further reading
* Reeves, Eric.
South Sudan: Riek Machar's End-Game - What Is It? . ''
Sudan Tribune
The ''Sudan Tribune'' is an electronic news portal
A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information ...
''. 28 December 2013.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Machar, Riek
1952 births
Nuer people
Alumni of the University of Bradford
Second Sudanese Civil War
Living people
Sudan People's Liberation Movement politicians
Government ministers of South Sudan
Vice-presidents of South Sudan
People from Unity (state)
SPLM/SPLA Political-Military High Command
South Sudanese Presbyterians
People of the South Sudanese Civil War
Heads of government who were later imprisoned
21st-century South Sudanese politicians