South Sudan’s sacked vice-president Riek Machar has vowed to return, saying his credibility is intact.
Speaking from South Africa, Mr Machar, who fled the country in August said that his rebel faction can still negotiate a peace deal with President Salva Kiir.
Speaking to the BBC’s HARDtalk programme, Mr Machar said: “I’m going to return to South Sudan.”
“Because President Salva Kiir doesn’t want democratic and transparent and fair elections to be conducted, he attacked us, he has restarted the war.
“But I am hoping that wise leaders in the region, and in Africa, and the rest of the world will throw up a political process which will bring about peace again, and the resuscitation of the peace agreement, and the reconstitution of the transitional government of national unity.”
His statement comes despite last week’s heavy fighting in the city of Malakal.
Mr Mashar, who first fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo, is now being treated in Johannesburg.
He claimed his life was in danger and that there was a “botched attempt to assassinate him.”
In July, Mr Mashar’s bodyguards and President Salva Kiir’s presidential guards fought each other, sparking days of violence.
Hundreds of people died and more than 100,000 fled across the border.
