Latest news with #Kiir
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
South Sudan's President Kiir promotes sanctioned ally as ruling party deputy
NAIROBI (Reuters) -South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has reshuffled the senior leadership in the ruling party, according to an official decree, as the country faces fresh fighting between rival armed factions and widespread speculation about Kiir's succession plans. Kiir, 73, promoted sanctioned ally Second Vice President Benjamin Bol Mel as his SPLM party's deputy chairperson, according to a decree read on the state broadcaster on Tuesday night, weeks after the United Nations said the country was on the brink of civil war. Seen widely by political analysts as Kiir's chosen successor, Bol Mel was sanctioned by the United States in 2017 over suspicions his construction company received preferential treatment in the awarding of government contracts. If Kiir stepped down, Bol Mel's new role as the SPLM party's deputy chairperson would make him acting president of the country. The reshuffle follows months of political uncertainty in which authorities placed Kiir's longtime rival First Vice President Riek Machar under house arrest, accusing him of trying to stir a rebellion. Machar's opposition party denied the charges, and said the move effectively voided a 2018 peace deal that ended a five-year civil war between Kiir's Dinka forces and Nuer fighters loyal to Machar. Western countries, including the United States, Britain and Germany closed embassies or cut back operations in South Sudan. Tuesday night's ruling party shake-up saw Kiir demote three veterans of South Sudan's liberation struggle, including former Second Vice President James Wani Igga, according to the decree read on state television on Tuesday night.
The Star
21-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
South Sudan's President Kiir promotes sanctioned ally as ruling party deputy
FILE PHOTO: South Sudan's President Salva Kiir Mayardit arrives at Khartoum airport, Sudan November 1, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo NAIROBI (Reuters) -South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has reshuffled the senior leadership in the ruling party, according to an official decree, as the country faces fresh fighting between rival armed factions and widespread speculation about Kiir's succession plans. Kiir, 73, promoted sanctioned ally Second Vice President Benjamin Bol Mel as his SPLM party's deputy chairperson, according to a decree read on the state broadcaster on Tuesday night, weeks after the United Nations said the country was on the brink of civil war. Seen widely by political analysts as Kiir's chosen successor, Bol Mel was sanctioned by the United States in 2017 over suspicions his construction company received preferential treatment in the awarding of government contracts. If Kiir stepped down, Bol Mel's new role as the SPLM party's deputy chairperson would make him acting president of the country. The reshuffle follows months of political uncertainty in which authorities placed Kiir's longtime rival First Vice President Riek Machar under house arrest, accusing him of trying to stir a rebellion. Machar's opposition party denied the charges, and said the move effectively voided a 2018 peace deal that ended a five-year civil war between Kiir's Dinka forces and Nuer fighters loyal to Machar. Western countries, including the United States, Britain and Germany closed embassies or cut back operations in South Sudan. Tuesday night's ruling party shake-up saw Kiir demote three veterans of South Sudan's liberation struggle, including former Second Vice President James Wani Igga, according to the decree read on state television on Tuesday night. (Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom; Writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
Eyewitness News
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Eyewitness News
S.Sudan govt denies death of president after social media outcry
JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN - South Sudan's government on Thursday denied that President Salva Kiir had died, following online speculation. The long-serving 73-year-old leader has long been dogged by rumours of ill-health. But he has been pictured in recent months meeting visiting dignitaries and ordering a series of dramatic government reshuffles. He has also moved decisively against his long-time rival, and the current first vice-president, Riek Machar, placing him under house arrest and detaining several of his allies. Late Wednesday, reports began emerging on social media claiming that Kiir had, in the words of one Kenyan personality, "kicked the bucket". South Sudan's foreign ministry issued a statement the following day, saying it "categorically and strongly denies the false and malicious reports circulating on social media claiming that His Excellency President Salva Kiir Mayardit has passed away". The posts were "entirely baseless and irresponsible rumours fabricated by enemies of peace, development, nation building and stability", it added. It comes as South Sudan faces another bout of insecurity, with clashes between forces aligned with Kiir and Machar breaking out in several areas around the country, raising fears of renewed civil war.
Eyewitness News
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Eyewitness News
MSF hospital bombed in South Sudan
JUBA - Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said one of its hospitals in South Sudan had been bombed early on Saturday, with at least seven people killed by airstrikes in the area. South Sudan has descended into renewed conflict in recent months due to the collapse of a power-sharing agreement between rival generals, President Salva Kiir and First Vice-President Riek Machar. MSF said its hospital in Old Fangak in the north of the country had been bombed, destroying its pharmacy and all its medical supplies. A patient and staff member were injured. "The attack began at around 4:30 am (0130 GMT) when two helicopter gunships first dropped a bomb on the MSF pharmacy, burning it to the ground, then went on to fire on the town of Old Fangak for around 30 minutes," MSF said in a statement. It said a drone bombed the town's market next to the hospital at around 7 am, leading to at least seven deaths and wounding 20 people. "The hospital is clearly marked as a hospital. I don't think it was an accident," Mamman Mustapha, MSF's head of mission in South Sudan, told AFP by phone. "We've been there since 2014, we've shared our coordinates. They know us. And they continued shelling on the civilian population as well," he added. The hospital is the only one in the county, serving a population of more than 110,000 people in an area with extremely limited access to healthcare. It has not been an area at the centre of renewed clashes between the forces of Kiir and Machar in recent months. But the attack came a day after the Kiir-aligned army chief, Paul Majok Nang, threatened attacks in Fangak and Leer counties in response to a number of boats and barges being "hijacked". An army statement on Friday accused members of Machar's forces and its allies in the so-called White Army, a militia drawn from the vice president's ethnic Nuer community, of being behind the hijackings, which led to passengers and crew being "held hostage" and ransoms demanded. A spokesman for Machar's forces described the hijacking claims as "false" and called on the international community to investigate Saturday's assault. 'Considered hostile' Biel Boutros Biel, a local official in Fangak County, confirmed that bombings had hit the area around 4 am on Saturday. In a recorded statement, he said they were carried out by a drone and plane, displacing "over 30,000 people" and said a nine-month-old boy was among those killed. "These planes belonged to the government of South Sudan," he said. Last week, an opposition lawmaker accused Kiir's government of preparing a "genocide" of the Nuer community after it classified nine out of 16 Nuer-majority counties as "hostile", meaning aligned with Machar's party. South Sudan has been plagued by instability since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011. Kiir and Machar represent the two largest ethnic groups, the Dinka and Nuer, respectively. They fought a civil war between 2013 and 2018 that cost some 400,000 lives. An MSF hospital was also looted by gunmen in Ulang county, Upper Nile state last month.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
At least seven killed in South Sudan hospital bombing: MSF
At least seven people have been killed and another 20 injured in an attack on a town in South Sudan, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, has said, as fears grow that the world's youngest nation will relapse into all-out civil war. MSF said on Saturday that the attack destroyed the last remaining functioning hospital and pharmacy in Old Fangak in the north of the country. MSF urged in an X post: 'Stop the bombing. Protect civilians. Protect healthcare' and said the attack was 'a clear violation of international law.' It was not immediately clear why the facility was targeted. A spokesperson for South Sudan's military could not be reached for comment, according to The Associated Press news agency. Additional strikes occurred hours later near a market in Old Fangak, causing widespread panic and displacement of civilians, according to several witnesses. Tensions between forces allied with President Salva Kiir and those of First Vice President Riek Machar have boiled over. Old Fangak is one of several major towns in Fangak county, an ethnically Nuer part of the country that has been historically associated with the opposition party loyal to Machar, who is now under house arrest for alleged subversion. The United Nations has warned in recent weeks that South Sudan is on the brink of a renewed civil war as violence between rival factions escalates. South Sudan fell into a bloody civil war soon after gaining independence in 2011, as forces aligned with Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fought those loyal to Machar, an ethnic Nuer. The conflict killed more than 40,000 people before a 2018 peace deal saw the pair form a government of national unity. The hospital attack is the latest escalation in a government-led assault on opposition groups across the country. Since March, government troops backed by soldiers from Uganda have conducted dozens of air strikes targeting areas in neighbouring Upper Nile State. Multiple Western embassies, including the US, said in a statement Friday that the political and security situation in South Sudan has 'markedly worsened' in recent days. The embassies urged Kiir to free Machar from house arrest, and called for a 'return to dialogue urgently aimed at achieving a political solution'. An election, which was supposed to be held in 2023, has already been postponed twice and is now not scheduled until 2026.
