South Sudan has five deputy leaders, appointed as part of a power-sharing agreement
South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir Mayardit, has fired two of his vice presidents, the chief of the Internal Security Bureau of the National Security Service, and other top officials in the latest shakeup of his administration.
The move by the East African nation’s leader was announced in a series of decrees read on the state-owned broadcaster, SSBC, late on Monday without providing any reasons. It came a day after Kiir’s office announced that he had returned from an official visit to the UAE, where he discussed expanding bilateral cooperation in agriculture, mining, energy, and infrastructure.
According to the order, Kiir dismissed long-term Vice President James Wani Igga and replaced him with Benjamin Bol Mel, who has been sanctioned by the US in 2017 for alleged corruption. Igga, an army general, had held the position since 2013 and is the deputy chair of the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) party. Mel, his replacement, has served as a senior presidential envoy for special programs and SPLM deputy secretary-general.
President Kiir also relieved Hussein Abdelbagi Akol of his vice presidential duties and named Josephine Lagu as his replacement. He reassigned Akol as minister of agriculture, a position formerly held by Lagu. Akol and Lagu are both members of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA), a political coalition.
South Sudan has five vice presidents as part of a 2018 power-sharing agreement which ended a five-year civil war that began in 2013 due to a feud between President Kiir and his current first vice president, Riek Machar.
The volatile landlocked state became Africa’s newest country after it gained independence from Sudan in 2011. The oil-rich country has repeatedly postponed long-delayed general elections.
Kiir has frequently made changes to the transitional government in recent years. In December, the president sacked the central bank governor and the country’s military and police chiefs, following a gunfire incident in the capital, Juba.
On Monday, the president issued a separate decree, firing the head of the Internal Security Bureau of the National Security Service, General Akech Tong Aleu, whom he appointed last October to replace General Akol Koor as the spy chief. General Charles Chiek Mayo has been named acting chief of the agency until a permanent replacement is found.
Kiir also dismissed Yolanda Awel Deng as minister of health and General Alfred Futuyo Karaba as governor of Western Equatoria state. The president has not appointed replacements.
