South Sudan's rebels said on Sunday they do not believe a peace agreement could be reached with the government without their leader Riek Machar.

Pout Kang, leader of the SPLM-IO youth wing, told Radio Tamazuj from Addis Ababa that their rebel movement will never signed a peace agreement without their exiled leader Riek Machar.

“We remain very clear that we will not sign an agreement that does not include Dr. Riek Machar, and Dr. Riek must be released,” he said.

“Dr. Machar should not be relocated from his current detention to another one. He must be the one to choose where to go, not IGAD,” he added.

The opposition official said they had requested the East African regional bloc IGAD to release Machar unconditionally. “So we are still waiting for them to respond,” he said.