Hope, excitement in Juba as Machar is expected home
A billboard with portraits of the South Sudan's President Salva Kiir (left) and the opposition leader Riek Machar in Juba, South Sudan, on April 14, 2016. Preparations are on to forge a unity government with Machar taking the post of vice president. Machar's return to the capital Juba is expected on April 18, 2016. AFP PHOTO | ALBERT GONZALEZ FARRAN
In Juba, South Sudan’s capital, middle-aged and elderly residents — most of them veterans of the 21-year war with the north — converse in low tones as they sit under the trees sipping tea.
Among the questions some are asking are: Will First Vice President Riek Machar really return on April 18 as scheduled? Will his coming finally silence the guns, which have continued to fire off despite the two parties having signed the peace agreement in August 2015? And will there be forgiveness or retaliation?
