BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A spokesman says South Sudan armed opposition leader Riek Machar is coming home on Wednesday under the country's latest peace deal, more than two years after he fled on foot into exile.
Lam Paul Gabriel tells The Associated Press that Machar is returning to take part in a nationwide peace celebration, leading a small delegation but not bringing his own security despite concerns for his safety.
The spokesman says that "if this peace has to be implemented we need to trust each other."
Under the peace deal signed last month, Machar will be President Salva Kiir's deputy once again. That arrangement has twice collapsed in deadly fighting.
South Sudan's five-year civil war has killed almost 400,000 people with violence and disease, according to a recent estimate.
