The president of South Sudan Salva Kiir has replaced army chief Paul Malong with a general who is a member of an ethnic minority.
General James Ajongo Mawut, the former deputy chief of general staff for administration and finance, was named the new head of armed forces.
This follows a slew of resignations by senior generals alleging tribal bias and war crimes. Defence minister Kuol Manyang Juuk says president Salva Kiir appointed General James Ajongo as the new army chief.
Manyang has played down the significance of Malong’s removal, saying it was normal procedure.
Many in South Sudan have raised concerns about ethnic bias and war crimes in the civil war which has mired South Sudan since 2013 when Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fired his deputy, Riek Machar, a Nuer.
Malong was sacked via a presidential decree that was announced on Tuesday on national television by Kiir himself.
Ajongo joined the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, the formal name of the South Sudanese military, in 1983, when it was still a rebel group fighting for independence from neighboring Sudan.
