Kiir forms committee to probe Leer violence, names Manawa Gatkuoth as head

JUBA – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit on Wednesday night formed a committee to investigate the ongoing violence against civilians in southern parts of the country’s oil rich Unity State appointing the minister of water resources and irrigation Manawa Peter Gatkuoth as the committee’s head.

The decision by President Kiir to form a committee comes as unknown numbers of civilians are reported to have been killed at the hand of Mayendit and Koch Counties commissioner following a several-day attack on Leer County.

In the decree, Kiir formed the committee including senior members of the main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO)) led by First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny.

He appointed Manawa Peter Gatkuoth, the head of the SPLM-IO National Committee for Information and Public Relations who also doubles as the national minister of water resources and irrigation as the head of the committee.

The president gave the committee fourteen days to report back to him.

Violence in Leer has been going on now for two weeks with county commissioners of Koch, Mayendit, and Leer, all of whom are allied to President Salva Kiir, reportedly being behind the violence.