South Sudan’s ex-military chief released from house arrest for medical treatment
South Sudan’s former military chief of staff Paul Malong has been released from house arrest on humanitarian grounds and flown to Kenya for medical treatment.
"He’s free to go anywhere he wants," the country’s information minister Michael Makuei said.
It is Mr Malong’s first trip abroad since he was fired in May.
Tensions were high in the capital, Juba, this month after President Salva Kiir dispatched soldiers to surround Mr Malong’s house and ordered his bodyguards disarmed.
The situation was calmed after mediation by community leaders.
A former close ally of Mr Kiir, Mr Malong has been accused of leading last year’s fighting in Juba and controlling an ethnic militia.
The United States in September imposed sanctions on him along with two other senior officials for undermining security amid the country’s civil war.
