Kiir asked Machar for defense ministry 1 week before sacking Angelina Teny – documents

JUBA, APRIL 3, 2023 (SUDANS POST) – New documents have emerged revealing that President Salva Kiir Mayardit had requested First Vice President Riek Machar Teny to allow him take away the ministry of defense in return for ministry of interior.

The first document is a letter written by Presidential Affairs Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin asking First Vice President Machar on behalf of President Kiir to give up the ministry of defense in return for another portfolio such as the ministry of interior.

This, Marial said, is because the defense ministry portfolio is essential in President Kiir’s control of the army as the commander in chief.

“His Excellency President Salva Kur Mayardit has asked me to write and kindly request your esteemed office to give him the ministry of Defense and Veterans Affairs in exchange for another ministry, for example, the Ministry of Interior,” Marial wrote in the letter dated February 24, 2023.

“The President is asking Your Excellency to consider and look at this request for exchange of ministries in an amicable environment of collaboration which is reflected in the prevailing spirit of reconciliation in the Revitalized Government of National Unity, as we work to implement the Road Map.

“As Your Excellency knows, the President’s most important duty and authority as commander in chief of the unified SSPDF is to exercise effective command over the national army in order to defend the whole territory of South Sudan, its people, and resources,” he added.

In another letter, Machar who is the leader of the main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) rejected the request in his reponse, saying the president can exercise his command of the army with the then minister of defense, Angelina Teny.

“I am writing in response to the suggestion above, I believe the President can exercise effective command with the current Minister over the national army in order to defend the whole territory of South Sudan, its people public resources,” Machar wrote in his response.

ANGELINA TENY’S SACKING

Kiir one week later, exactly on March 3, 2023, sacked the minister of defense, sparking social media war of words with the SPLM-IO who accused the president and his party of violating the revitalized peace agreement that granted the SPLM-IO the right to remove or replace its representatives in the unity government.

Machar on March 30 wrote to the peace guarantors asking them for intervention, saying peace deal is being violated by Kiir.

“In the light of this, I am requesting the interventions of IGAD to resolve these grave violations putting R-ARCSS [Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan] in jeopardy,” Machar’s letter read in part.