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South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has sacked two of his vice-presidents, the country’s spy chief and other senior officials.<\/p>\n
The dismissals were announced in a series of presidential decrees read on the state broadcaster. No reasons were given for the move.<\/p>\n
South Sudan has five vice-presidents as part of a 2018 peace agreement to end a civil war.<\/p>\n
The oil-rich nation became the world’s newest country in 2011 after seceding from Sudan – but it was then engulfed by civil war after Kiir and his deputy Riek Machar fell out. The 2018 power-sharing agreement has been fraught with problems.<\/p>\n
One of the vice-president removed from office is James Wani Igga, a veteran politician and general, who has been in the position since 2013 and has been the deputy chair of SPLM, the party of the president.<\/p>\n
The other is Hussein Abdelbagi Akol, from an opposition alliance (SSOA) which is not part of the main opposition movement (SPLM-In Opposition) of First Vice-President Riek Machar.<\/p>\n
Akol has been appointed the minister for agriculture, replacing Josephine Joseph Lagu from the same SSOA alliance who now becomes a vice-president.<\/p>\n
Benjamin Bol Mel, who was sanctioned by the US in 2017 for alleged corruption, has been appointed to replace Igga as vice-president.<\/p>\n
Mel, previously a special presidential envoy for special programmes, has been the subject of speculation that he was being fronted as a potential successor of Kiir.<\/p>\n
The president has not appointed replacements for the health minister and the governor of the south-western state of Western Equatoria, who are both from Machar’s party.<\/p>\n
He has also not appointed a substantive replacement for the sacked spy chief, Akec Tong Aleu, who had only served four months after having been appointed in October.<\/p>\n
The 2018 peace deal gives the president prerogative to appoint and dismiss government officials at both national and state level.<\/p>\n
He can only appoint and dismiss officials who belong to other political parties with the consent of the leadership of those parties.<\/p>\n
It is not clear whether the dismissal of Western Equatoria governor and the health minister were recommended by their party leader, Machar. The SPLM-In Opposition has not commented on the matter.<\/p>\n
South Sudan has not conducted an election since independence.<\/p>\n
The first nationwide vote was scheduled to take place in 2015, but the election could not go ahead due to the conflict that erupted in December 2013.<\/p>\n
It was then supposed to happen in 2022, but polls were postponed for two years and were due two months ago.<\/p>\n
The vote was postponed again, and the country’s leadership said the election will now take place in December 2026.<\/p>\n