South Sudan’s government has just released a statement on the failure of rebel leader Riek Machar to arrive in the capital, Juba, to take up his post as first vice-president in a new unity government – a move that’s supposed to be a big step on the way to bringing an end to the civil war.
It says that Mr Machar has “indefinitely called off his coming to Juba”.
The statement says the government was told today that “he wanted to come with an arsenal of arms… anti-tanks, laser guided missiles and heavy machine guns”.
He also wanted to come with more soldiers, it says.
But the government argues that he “does not need any additional armed forces or arms in Juba”.
It says that he should only come with 40 more rebels.
Here’s part of the statement:
