The United Nations has confirmed that the Former First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar is in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The UN says it facilitated the extraction of Dr. Machar from South Sudan to the D-R-C on Wednesday.

He fled the capital, Juba following renewed fighting that erupted at the State House between his bodyguards and the bodyguards of President Salva Kiir.

Since then Dr. Machar was not seen in the public for weeks and his whereabouts remained unknown.

The UN spokesperson, Farah Haq, said they contacted the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUSCO, and the Congolese authorities to facilitate the extraction of Dr. Machar.

“We have undergone an extraction operation and so he is currently in the care of the authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” Mr. Haq told Al-Jazeera English Television Channel from New York on Thursday.

The chairman of information committee of the SPLM in Opposition, Mabior Garang, also confirmed to the B-B-C the presence of Dr. Riek Machar in the D-R-C.

Earlier on Thursday, Information Minister Michael Makuei told Radio France International that the government was “not aware of the whereabouts” of Machar.