Riek Machar

==Early career==

Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon was born in [[Leer, South Sudan|Leer]], [[Unity State]] on 26 November 1952,<ref>{{cite web |title=Biography of Dr. Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon |url=https://www.presidency.gov.ss/riakmachar.php |website=www.presidency.gov.ss}}</ref> the 27th son of the chief of [[Ayod]] and Leer. 
He was brought up as a member of the Presbyterian church.{{sfn|Manyang|2005}} 
Machar belongs to the Dok section (Dok-Chiengluom) of the [[Nuer people|Nuer Bentiu people]].{{sfn|Schlee|Watson|2009|pp=44}}
He trained as an engineer at [[Khartoum University]], and obtained a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the [[University of Bradford]] in 1984.{{sfn|Arcuil|2006}}{{sfn|Edgerton|2004|pp=128}}

Machar has been called a ''tuut dhoali/Doth in English'', which may be translated "adult boy", meaning uninitiated and literate.{{Clarify|date=June 2022|reason=Shouldn't it be "illiterate"?, unless I am missing the context}}
He has tried to transcend tribal divisions, and at one time attempted to ban initiation marks.{{sfn|Feyissa|2011|pp=170}}
However, in his struggle with [[John Garang]] he exploited ethnic rivalries between the Nuer and [[Dinka people]].{{sfn|Feyissa|2011|pp=204}}
Machar married [[Emma McCune]], a British aid worker. She died in a car accident in [[Nairobi]] in 1993 at the age of 29, while pregnant.{{sfn|Kirkus Reviews}} 
Machar's second wife, [[Angelina Teny]], is one of the leading women politicians in South Sudan. She was state minister of Energy and Mining in the transitional government (2005–2010).{{sfn|Angelina Teny...}}

Machar was a rebel leader with the [[Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement]] (SPLM/A) headed by [[John Garang]] from 1984 until he fell out with Garang in 1991. As Zonal Commander of Western Upper Nile, in 1986 he entered into an agreement with [[Baggara]] chiefs.{{sfn|Rone|2003|pp=15}}
Machar led forces that attacked and overran [[Melut]] in 1989. 
That year he was able to visit his family, which was based in Britain, for the first time since the civil war started. 
In 1990 Machar was based at Leer. 
Later he was appointed SPLA Regional Commander for a region that extended from the Ethiopian border in the east to [[Renk, South Sudan|Renk]] in the north and to [[Ayod, South Sudan|Ayod]] and [[Waat]] in the south.{{sfn|Manyang|2005}}

Machar disagreed with the SPLA leader John Garang over objectives. Where John Garang at first wanted a secular and democratic but united Sudan in which the southerners would have full representation, Machar wanted a fully independent South Sudan.{{sfn|Little|2007|pp=192}}
In August 1991 Riek Machar, [[Lam Akol]] and [[Gordon Kong]] announced that John Garang had been ejected from the SPLM.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|pp=202}}
Kong Chuol is from the Eastern Jikany Nuer and Lam Akol is from the [[Shilluk people]].
The breakaway faction, based in [[Nasir, South Sudan|Nasir]] until 1995 and then in Waat and Ayod, was called the SPLM/A-Nasir faction from 1991 to 1993.{{sfn|Rone|2003|pp=8–9}} As part of [[SPLA-Nasir]], he was involved in the [[Bor massacre]], where 2000 mostly civilians were killed in Bor in 1991 while tens of thousands died in the following years from the [[1993 Sudan famine|resulting famine]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/5133324.stm|title=Reclaiming the past in Southern Sudan|publisher=bbcnews.com|access-date=20 December 2013|date=1 July 2006}}</ref>
The Bul Nuer Anyanya-2 militia at [[Mayom, South Sudan|Mayom]] under [[Paulino Matip]] and the Lou Nuer Anyanya-2 militia at [[Doleib Hill]] under [[Yohannes Yual]] declared for Riek.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|pp=202}}

[[Kerubino Kuanyin]] and Faustino Atem Gualdit, Dinkas from Bahr el-Ghazal, had been among the founders of the SPLM but had fallen out with John Garang and had been jailed. They escaped and joined Machar in 1993, with their forces making an important addition to the formerly Nuer-dominated SPLA-Nasir. Kerubino became deputy Commander in Chief.{{sfn|Rone|1996|pp=318–319}} 
After this addition by forces from other ethnic groups, Riek's movement and force was called the SPLA-United from 1993 to 1994.{{sfn|Rone|2003|pp=8–9}}

In September 1993, President [[Daniel Arap Moi]] of Kenya held separate talks with Garang and Riek Machar.
In October 1993 the US Congress hosted a meeting between Garang and Machar. The two seemed to agree about various subjects related to a cease fire and reconciliation between the two factions, [[self-determination]] and opposition to the Khartoum regime, but Machar disputed Garang's authority and refused to sign a joint declaration.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|pp=204}}
Machar dismissed Lam Akol from the SPLA-United in February 1994. Lam Akol returned to [[Kodok]] in the government-held region of [[Upper Nile (state)|Upper Nile]] state.{{sfn|Johnson|2003|pp=205}}

From 1994 to 1997 Machar's movement was known as the South Sudan Independence Movement/Army (SSIM/A).{{sfn|Rone|2003|pp=15}}
Although seeking independence for South Sudan, the group received covert support from the Government of Sudan as it fought the SPLA between 1991 and 1999 in attacks that became increasingly violent and ethnically motivated.{{sfn|Rone|2003|pp=16}}
Early in 1995 hostilities between the SSIM and SPLA, which had taken several thousands of civilian lives, were temporarily suspended. Machar dismissed Kerubino Kuanyin and Commander [[William Nyuon Bany]] from the SSIM on the basis that they had signed military and political agreements with the government of Sudan late in the previous year, and that they had attempted to form a government-supported faction in the SSIM.{{sfn|Rone|1996|pp=318}}

During the 1990s Machar skillfully developed support among the eastern Nuer, the Jikany and the Lou, taking advantage of SPLA unpopularity with the Jikany and drawing on prophetic tradition to make his case.{{sfn|Feyissa|2011|pp=206}}
In 1996 Machar signed a Political Charter and in 1997 the [[Khartoum Peace Agreement of 1997|Khartoum Peace Agreement]] with the government. Under this agreement he was assistant to [[Omar el-Bashir]], President of Sudan, and President of the Southern States Coordinating Council.{{sfn|Rone|2003|pp=16}} He was also made commander in chief of the [[South Sudan Defence Forces (militia)|South Sudan Defense Force]] (SSDF), which included most of the ex-rebels who had signed the Khartoum agreement.{{sfn|Rone|2003|pp=16}}