President Salva Kiir has appointed Santino Deng Wol as the country’s Chief of Defense Forces, taking over from General Johnson Juma Okot on Saturday evening.
Media sources revealed that at the time of making changes Gen. Okot was on a mission with the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) to restore normalcy along the Juba-Nimule road.
Truck drivers have been protesting lack of insecurity along the highways after surge in insecurity where their colleagues were killed and vehicles burnt.
Okot will now head to Brussels for his new assignment where he will serve in South Sudan’s mission.
Kiir has changed military chiefs close to four times in a span of less than five years, with many of the changes being inspired by political disagreements and need to build a face of unity government.
The outgoing army chief is leaving at a time that he was supposed to lead the professionalization of the force. This implies that Mr Wol will take up the mantle of working with the ministry of defence and veteran affairs to solve the nagging question of the graduation of forces.
Last month, the docket minister Angelina Teny revealed that plans were underway to undertake the exercise but the government faced the problem of cash-crunch. The City Review established that most trainees especially in Rajac centre had escaped from the camps due to the harsh living conditions and the uncertainty.
Reshuffling
The president made extra changes in the cabinet by removing the Deputy Minister for Defence and Veteran Affairs Malek Reuben Riak, who he deployed as ambassador to Eritrea-South Sudan’s newest diplomatic mission.
He has been replaced by the Deputy Chief of General Staff Chol Thon Balok.
Another notable casualty of the presidential changes was the Minister for Presidential Affairs Nhial Deng Nhial who hads been replaced with Marial Benjamin, a former foreign affairs minister and a government mediation representative in a recent peace conference with SSOMA leaders.
The State House is yet to reveal what led to the reshuffling that affected key institutions of country’s leadership.