APRNEWS - There is some new level of excitement and hope in South Sudan following rebel leader Riek Machar’s return to the capital Juba on Wednesday. Machar’s return was to celebrate a peace deal more than two years after fierce fighting erupted in the city which forced him to flee.

President Salva Kiir in order to reinforce the peace deal ordered the release of a jailed advisor to Machar.

REUTERS - South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar will return to the capital Juba to celebrate a peace deal on Wednesday, his group said, more than two years after he fled the country after the collapse of an earlier accord.

Machar’s office said he would hold joint peace celebrations with his long-time rival, President Salva Kiir, in Juba - though there was no immediate confirmation from the government