Kiir removes opposition-nominated deputy minister of cabinet affairs

JUBA – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit has removed, in a presidential decree, the country’s deputy minister of cabinet affairs Deng Deng Akoon who was nominated by the main armed opposition group SPLM-IO led by First Vice President Riek Machar Teny early this month.

This comes weeks after Akoon was appointed as a member of the Reconstituted Transitional Council of States and his subsequent designation by the main armed opposition group as the next speaker of the Council of States.

In the decree read out on the state-owned South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation, Kiir didn’t cite reason as he did not also appoint a replacement. The SPLM-IO is also yet to designate a replacement for Akoon.

Akoon, a long-time ally of the First Vice President Machar was nominated in early July for speaker of the Council of States that was given to the SPLM-IO by the revitalized peace agreement signed by Kiir and Machar in September 2018.

Kiir is expected to appoint – this week or early next week – a replacement for Akoon and deputy minister of interior which was deserted by the SPLM-IO spokesman Mabior Garang De Mabior who has long been outside the country expressing his discontent about the implementation of the agreement.

Nyenagwek Kuol was designated seven months ago by the main armed opposition group, but no appointment has been made by the president.