Riek Machar

Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon (born 26 November 1952) is a South Sudanese politician who is serving as the First Vice President of South Sudan.

Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon was born in Leer, Unity State on 26 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.

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).

He trained as an engineer at Khartoum University, and obtained a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bradford 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 he exploited ethnic rivalries between the Nuer and Dinka people.

Machar married Emma McCune, a British aid worker.

Machar was a rebel leader with the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLM/A) headed by John Garang 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 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.

Machar fell out with the SPLM/A leader John Garang in 1991 and formed a splinter group, the SPLM/A-Nasir.

In August 1991 Riek Machar, Lam Akol and Gordon Kong 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.

She died in a car accident in Nairobi in 1993 at the age of 29, while pregnant.

Machar's second wife, Angelina Teny, is one of the leading women politicians in South Sudan.

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.

The breakaway faction, based in Nasir until 1995 and then in Waat and Ayod, was called the SPLM/A-Nasir faction from 1991 to 1993.

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.

As part of SPLA-Nasir, he was involved in the Bor massacre, 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 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.

After the death of John Garang in July 2005, Machar became vice-president of the autonomous Southern Sudan.

She was state minister of Energy and Mining in the transitional government (2005–2010).

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.

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.

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.

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.