South Sudan president names new cabinet: state media

Google – AFP, 31 July 2013

South Sudan President Salva Kiir arrives at a summit in Addis Ababa,

Ethiopia, on May 26, 2013 (AFP/File, Simon Maina)

JUBA — South Sudan President Salva Kiir named his new cabinet Wednesday after sacking his entire team last week, but has yet to appoint a vice president, a decree on state media read.

Some are new appointments, such as military strongman Kuol Manyang, currently governor of troubled eastern Jonglei state, who takes the key position of defence minister, the decree read.

But crucial absences include Riek Machar, the sacked former vice-president, and Pagan Amum, the suspended secretary-general of the ruling party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).

Kiir, the leader of the world's newest nation, last week fired Machar as well as all cabinet ministers and their deputies in the most dramatic change of leadership since independence two years ago.

Kiir, who has had to juggle complex ethnic rivalries in his appointments, also slashed a third of ministries, combining many together.

Other ministers have been reshuffled, such as Martin Elia Lomoro, previously minister of animal resources and fisheries, who now becomes minister of cabinet affairs.

Oil Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau is one of the few to retain his post, a key job for the oil-rich but deeply impoverished nation.

Manyang, the new defence minister, was among the founders of the 1983-2005 rebellion against Sudanese government troops, a much feared guerrilla commander of the SPLM's armed wing, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).

More than 100,000 people have fled their homes from Manyang's homeland of Jonglei in recent months, fleeing bitter rounds of ethnic violence and battles between the army and rebels.

On Saturday Kiir promoted former information minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin to the post of foreign minister.

Many of the sacked ministers were key figures in two decades of war against the government of Sudan, which led to a 2011 referendum in which South Sudan voted overwhelmingly to split from the north and form a new nation.

There was no word on when a vice-president would be appointed.

Analysts have said that while last week's sackings were dramatic, the real test of the reshuffle will come from a resulting power struggle within the ruling party.

Ahmed Soliman, of Britain's Chatham House think tank, argued on Monday that Machar and Amum now face the possibility of a two year wait until elections due in 2015 to make a challenge for Kiir's job.

"They could carve their own separate factions from the SPLM and attempt to run as opposition candidates," Soliman said.

Aly Verjee, from the Rift Valley Institute, pointed out that "the real political drama is still to come", when leaders vie for positions within the ruling SPLM party.

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