South Sudan opposition leader Riek Machar has left country: spokesman

South Sudan’s former vice president and opposition leader Riek Machar has left the country for a neighbouring state, opposition officials said on Thursday, several weeks after he withdrew from the capital Juba during fierce fighting with government troops.

A statement issued by the leadership of the SPLA In Opposition (SPLA-IO) said he had left on Wednesday to a “safe country within the region”, while his spokesman James Gatdet Dak said he was in a neighbouring state.