South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has dismissed Foreign Minister Ramadan Mohamed and appointed his deputy, Monday Simaya Kumba, as the new Minister of Foreign Affairs, according to state media reports released late on Wednesday.
The government has not provided an official explanation for the sudden dismissal, which follows a diplomatic dispute with the United States over a migration matter. The disagreement stemmed from South Sudan’s initial refusal to accept a Congolese national deported from the US. In retaliation, the Trump administration threatened to revoke the visas of South Sudanese nationals.
Although Juba ultimately complied with Washington’s demands on Tuesday by permitting the deported individual to enter the country, it remains unclear whether the ministerial shake-up is directly related to the ongoing diplomatic row.
In a separate development, a faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) announced on Wednesday that it had replaced its chairman, First Vice President Riek Machar, with Peacebuilding Minister Stephen Par Kuol as interim leader. The change is expected to remain in place until Machar is released from house arrest.
The decision has drawn criticism from within the party and raised speculation that President Kiir may use the opportunity to dismiss his long-time rival and consolidate greater control over the government by endorsing Kuol’s leadership.
“President Kiir (would) want people who would agree with him … so that now the government’s legitimacy will be created,” said Kuol Abraham Nyuon, a political science professor at the University of Juba.
Machar, who has served alongside Kiir in a unity government formed after the 2018 peace agreement, was accused of attempting to incite rebellion and was placed under house arrest last month.
“It is urgent that South Sudan’s leaders meet their obligations and demonstrate that their priority is peace,” they said in a joint statement.
The SPLM-IO has said Machar’s detention effectively undermines the peace deal that brought an end to South Sudan’s five-year civil war, which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Nevertheless, the party later reaffirmed its commitment to the agreement.