South Sudan’s Riek Machar in South Africa for treatment

Riek Machar is said to have arrived in South Africa on Wednesday on a private visit for medical reasons. (Photo: AFP)

South Sudanese opposition leader Riek Machar is in South Africa to receive medical treatment, his spokesman and officials in Pretoria said on Thursday, after the former vice president fled fighting that erupted in the South Sudanese capital in July. 

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.