Machar as ‘no plans’ to replace nominee for deputy minister of interior – spokesman

JUBA – South Sudan’s main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition and First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny has no plans to replace the group’s nominee for deputy minister of interior who was nominated by the group in February this year, a spokesman for the first deputy president said.

The deputy minister of interior has been allocated to the SPLM-IO by the revitalized peace agreement. Former SPLM-IO spokesman Mabior Garang de Mabior was nominated to the position, but resigned days following return to Juba to briefly take up the position in June last year.

On February 1, 2021, Machar nominated Nyenagwek Kuol, former minister of information for Warrap state who is currently the SPLM-IO chairperson for Abyei Administrative Area, but the group’s leader Machar said in August that President Salva Kiir Mayardit has refused to appoint the nominee in violation of the revitalized peace agreement.

However, in a communiqué following the SPLM-IO split in early August, First Vice President Machar said President Salva Kiir Mayardit has refused to appoint the SPLM-IO nominee for deputy minister of interior terming it a violation of the 2018 peace agreement.

He said a SPLM-IO Political Bureau meeting on August 4, 2021 “discussed the blatant violations” of the revitalized peace agreement by the president including his refusal “to appoint the SPLM/A (IO) nominee to the position of Deputy Minister of Interior whose nomination was submitted on February 1, 2021.”

Speaking to Sudans Post this morning, Press Secretary in the Office of the First Vice President and SPLM-IO Director of Information and Public Relations Puok Both Baluang said the group has no plan to replace the nominee and urged President Salva Kiir Mayardit to appoint her for the sack of peace in the country.

“We have no plans to replace our nominee, matter of fact we are calling on the President to appoint our nominee for the position of Deputy Minister of Interior as soon as possible,” Baluang said.

On August 7 however, President Kiir’s media aide Ateny Wek Ateny said he hasn’t been informed on the matter because he didn’t attend the meeting between Kiir and Machar where the deputy minister of interior was discussed saying the two men haven’t informed anyone about if the nominee has been rejected or not.

“It was a meeting of the First Vice President with the President; they didn’t tell anybody whether there is rejection or not, so I cannot talk about something I have not been told. They were only two and they didn’t make any statement,” he said at the time.