Machar in consultation with allies to name replacement for Odwar

JUBA –  South Sudan’s First Vice President and leader of the main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO), Dr. Riek Machar Teny, is in consultation with senior members of the group to nominate a candidate to replace former minister of mining, Henry Dilah Odwar, who resigned in August from the unity government.

On 12 August, Odwar who was appointed to the position in March last year on the ticket of the Machar-led group, resigned and joined the breakaway faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-in opposition (SPLM/A-IO) led by  former SPLA-IO chief of staff Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual.

Odwar, who formerly deputized Machar in the SPLM/A-IO, tendered his resignation without providing reasons for his move, but later accused Machar of surrendering to President Kiir in the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement.

Odwar is the second senior opposition official to resign from the transitional unity government after Mabior Garang De Mabior, former deputy minister of interior who resigned in June 2020 from his position.

Odwar’s resignation comes in the aftermath of clashes in August at Magenis near the Sudan border between troops loyal to First Vice President Riek Machar and those loyal to Dual that left 34 soldiers dead.

Speaking to Sudans Post this morning, the Press Secretary in the Office of the First Vice President and SPLM-IO Director of Information and Public Relations, Puok Both Baluang, said the delay to replace former mining minister Odwar is based on an ongoing consultation within the SPLM-IO.

“Regarding the ministry of mining, there is a consultation taking place at the moment so that we can select a replacement for the former minister of mining,” Baluang told a Sudans Post reporter in Juba on Tuesday.

Baluang said that he is optimistic that the SPLM-IO leadership will nominate someone for the ministerial position very soon.

“In the SPLM/A-IO, we run our affairs based on consultations between different concerned leadership levels and to bring someone who will deliver services or someone who will carry out his or her duties perfectly,” he said.