The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has officially protested what it calls border limitation by Congolese authorities, saying they crossed into South Sudan last week to evacuate Dr Riek Machar without informing the government.

Dr. Machar fled the capital, Juba, following renewed fighting that erupted last month at the State House between his bodyguards and those of President Salva Kiir.

Since then, his whereabouts remained unknown.

Last week, the UN said Dr Riek was in the Democratic Republic Congo. SPLM-IO who have moved out of South Sudan and maintained their loyalty to Dr Riek said he was dehydrated.

But the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the South Sudanese airspace was violated during the evacuation process.
The spokesperson, Mawien Makol says the ministry summoned the DRC ambassador in Juba yesterday to explain the action by his country.

“We summoned the Congolese Ambassador yesterday in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, because we were protesting on the border limitation that happened last week when the forces belonging to the former First Vice President crossed the border with him,” Mawien said.

“They [DRC] entered with a flight into the border without the knowledge of the government of the Republic of South Sudan, so that thing of course annoyed us and we have explained to him that this is what happened and he is going to convey the message to his country and that we were not informed about the coming into our border with the flight from Congolese. So they shouldn’t come to our airspace without getting permission from this country,” he said.

However, the UN has confirmed that it evacuated the former 1st Vice President to the DRC last Wednesday.