South Sudan: President Kiir sacks Finance Minister

By Deng Machol

Juba – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has sacked his Finance Minister without giving reasons for the changes, state television  said on Friday.

This comes after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) highly commended him for putting South Sudan’s economy on the path of recovery.

President Kiir sacked Hon. Athian Ding Athian from the post of Finance Minister, replacing him with Agak Achuil Lual.

Kiir has also removed Interior Minister Paul Mayom Akec, who was  replaced by Mahmoud Solomon Agook.

According to government, the changes would not affect the functioning of the government.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after some two decades of civil war but descended into another violence two years later following  political struggling within the ruling party, SPLM.

This resulted to clashes in Juba’s capital between  forces loyal to Kiir and to his then rival Riek Machar.

The country’s five year civil war, which ended with a peace deal in 2018, killed 400,000 people and uprooted four million people from their homes,  triggered Africa’s biggest refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The country that emerging from the ruinous civil war, is struggling to revitalized and recover its devastated economy.