Salva Kiir Sacks Military Chief, Finance Minister
South Sudan President Salva Kiir
President Salva Kiir of South Sudan on Monday dismissed army commander Marial Chanuong Yol and Finance minister Stephen Dhieu Dau.
The state-owned television announced the sackings on an evening broadcast and no reasons were given for the sackings.
Gen Yol, nicknamed Tiger, was the commander of the presidential guard, before he was appointed the army chief of operations, training and intelligence last year.
He was blacklisted by the UN Security Council in 2015 for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the onset of war in December 2013 against members of the the Nuer ethnic group.
Mr Dau was appointed Finance minister in 2016, with the hope of improving South Sudan’s straining economy. However, the economy of the young nation has never been stable, especially since the 2015 devaluation of the South Sudanese Pound (SSP).
Former technical advisor at the Ministry of Trade Salvatore Garang Mabiordit, was named the new Finance minister.
South Sudan attained independence in 2011 following a referendum whose outcome favoured the separation from Sudan with a 98 per cent approval.
However, it soon descended into another round of conflict pitting President Kiir’s loyalists and those allied to his former deputy Riek Machar.
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