SPLM-IO rebels said they are reluctant for their leader Riek Machar to visit Kampala because they do not trust the Ugandan president's intentions, suggesting Machar's life may be in danger in the Ugandan capital.

This was the reason for dispatching the movement’s deputy for a meeting with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni rather than sending the chairman himself, according to Yohanis Musa Pouk, a member of the SPLM-IO advance team to Khartoum.

Pouk told El Arabi El Jedid newspaper that Museveni extended two invitations to Machar to visit Kampala, but the rebels, suspecting an assassination plot, sent a delegation headed by the deputy chairman Alfred Lado Gore instead.

“The Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni wants Dr Riek personally to visit Kampala,” Pouk was quoted as saying.

The delegation without Machar landed in Kampala Tuesday but returned to Addis Ababa hours later because the Ugandan government refused to receive them at the airport.

Yohanis added that SSDM rebel leader George Athor was found dead in the bush in Equatoria region after visiting Kampala in 2011.

File photo: SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar

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