The armed opposition movement, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO),  has confirmed that it’s leader,  Dr. Riek Machar, is under house arrest in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

On Wednesday,  a senior government official told the Nyamilepedia in Cairo that Machar is “not allowed to move beyond Khartoum” until the formation of a unity government due by May.

The official following the formation of the would-be unity government,  Machar’s will be declared free in an extraordinary summit of the heads of stage and government of IGAD.

According to report by Nyamilepedia on Thursday, the SPLM-IO Chairperson of National Committee for Foreign Relations, Stephen Par Kuol, confirmed that Machar is in fact under detention.