South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir yesterday fired the country’s foreign minister, giving no reason for doing so.
Before being relieved of his duties, the foreign minister Barnaba Marial had served in the office since July 2014.
The president’s decision comes just after the Democratic Change party and the SPLM Former Detainees called for Barnaba to resign after he stated in a letter sent to the United Nations in Geneva that prominent Abyei-born academic Luka Biong was not South Sudanese.
Marial later confirmed that he had been relieved of his duties.
“I have been relieved of my duty as the minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation for the Republic of South Sudan this evening by a presidential decree by my president”, he said.
The presidential decree number 169 was read out on state-run SSTV on Wednesday night.
NO replacement has been named to take charge of the ministry.
