South Sudan President Salva Kiir has sacked two top security ministers, violating the terms of a peace agreement with opposition party leader First Vice President Riek Machar.
Kiir fired the country’s defence minister Angelina Teny[ She is the first woman to hold the powerful position ]who is also Machar’s wife, and interior minister Mahmoud Solomon in a presidential order read on state TV late on Friday, Lily Martin Manyiel, the President’s spokesperson said on Saturday.
Kiir and Machar’s forces signed a peace agreement in 2018 that ended five years of civil war that killed 400,000 people. In Friday’s decree, Kiir handed the defence ministry to his party, a role which, under the terms of the agreement, is meant to be appointed by Machar’s party.
In exchange, the president gave Machar’s party the interior ministry.
“The switch… is unilateral and a new cycle of violating the revitalized agreement,” said Puok Both Baluang, Machar’s spokesperson.
