South Sudanese president appoints interior minister

Salva Kiir

JUBA, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- South Sudanese President Salva Kiir on Tuesday night appointed Angelina Teny as minister of interior.

Kiir, who announced the appointment in a presidential decree broadcast on the state-owned television, the South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation, also replaced Deputy Minister of Interior Peter Puok Koang with Marial Gumke.

Teny, who is the wife of First Vice President Riek Machar, was sacked by Kiir in March as minister of defense and veteran affairs.

Under the 2018 revitalized peace deal, Kiir's Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)-In Government (SPLM-IG) controls the Ministry of Interior while SPLM-In Opposition (SPLM-IO) is in charge of the Ministry of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

However, Kiir reversed the two ministries in March which he handed the interior ministry to the SPLM-IO and took over the defense ministry. The move caused an outcry from the SPLM-IO which accused Kiir of violating the peace pact.

Kiir and Machar as well as other political leaders signed a revitalized peace agreement in 2018 that ended five years of civil war in South Sudan.