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ROME (Reuters) – Former South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar said on Friday that he did not think it would be possible for the country's divided leaders to respect the rule of law. May 12 deadline to form a government of national unity.
In an exclusive interview with Reuters, Machar, who is expected to become the first vice president of the union government, also said he was confident that the new military leadership of Khartoum would continue to guarantee the fragile deal of peace with South Sudan.
He added that an extension of the six-month period was necessary to unify the defense forces and deploy them, to demilitarize the capital Juba and other urban centers, to agree on the transfer of powers and the release of political prisoners.
Machar said he discussed the extension with President Salva Kiir during a retreat at the Vatican that ended Thursday with a call from Pope Francis to leaders to respect an armistice and resolve their differences .
Sudan, which is predominantly Muslim, and the predominantly Christian south fought for decades before South Sudan became independent in 2011. South Sudan plunged into civil war two years later after that Kiir, a Dinka, had dismissed Machar from the Nuer ethnic group. Presidency.
About 400,000 people have died and more than a third of the country's 12 million inhabitants have been uprooted, causing the biggest refugee crisis in Africa since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
(Report by Philip Pullella, edited by Gavin Jones)
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