BREAKING: Kiir sacks Warrap governor, names successor

JUBA – South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir Mayardit, on Thursday night issued a Republic Decree dismissing the governor of the country’s Warrap state, Bona Panek Biar, who was appointed on the Kiir-led SPLM-IG ticket last year as a part of a power-sharing deal between the government and a number of opposition groups.

The decree read out on the state-ran South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC) did not narrate why Panek was dismissed just less than a year after his appointment and even before he could form his power-sharing state cabinet with the opposition as provided for in the 2018 revitalized peace agreement that granted the Warrap state governorship to Kiir’s SPLM-IG.

General Aleu Anyieny Aleu who served as South Sudan’s interior minister between 2013 and 2015 was appointed to succeed Panek and will now serve as the new governor of Warrap state.

Aleu also served as member of parliament representing Warrap constituency 9 which includes Gogrial West following 2010 elections, serving under that role until his appointment as interior minister in July 2013.

In a separate Decree, Kiir appointed Yas Awan as undersecretary for the ministry of information, communication technology and postal service succeeding Paul Jacob Kumbo who died in October last year in Khartoum following a lengthy unknown medical condition.