Kiir forms committee headed by himself for Upper Nile conference

JUBA – South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit has formed a committee to organize the Upper Nile state conference which was supposed to take place in mid-December before being called off a day after it was scheduled.

The conference is meant to reconcile the people of Upper Nile state who have been torn apart by the civil war which ended in February with the appointment of Dr. Riek Machar Teny as First Vice President which he held prior to the 2016 second outbreak of the civil war.

In the committee, Kiir is the chairperson and deputized by his first deputy Dr. Riek Machar Teny with the country’s cabinet minister, Elia Lomoro, as repporteur.

Other senior government officials including Kiir’s security advisor, Tut Gatluak and former defense minister and now presidential advisor Kuol Manyang Juuk, will serve as members, as well as five SPLM-IO representatives and two from South Sudan Opposition Alliance.

The conference will be attended by 150 delegates from the 13 Upper Nile state counties that makes up the five ethnic communities of Upper Nile state.