South Sudan President Salva Kiir sacked the Foreign Affairs Minister on Wednesday, March 8— less than a week after the dismissal of the ministers of defence and internal affairs, the president’s spokesperson said, without providing any explanation.
Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Mayiik Ayii is a close ally of Kiir and previously served as the minister of the president’s office.
It was not immediately clear if Ayii’s termination was linked to those of the defence and interior, which have threatened to destroy a fragile peace deal with opposition leader, First Vice President Riek Machar.
“It’s a normal business. People can be relieved and replaced,” Kiir’s spokesperson, Lily Martin Manyiel said.
Kiir and Machar’s forces signed a peace agreement in 2018 that ended five years of civil war that killed 400,000 people and caused Africa’s biggest refugee crisis since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.