Former minister of higher education in South Sudan, Adwok Nyaba has berated President Salva Kiir Mayardit for removing Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Beatrice Khamisa Wani while on a diplomatic mission to the Arab Republic of Egypt.
He said it was wrong and unethical, as she was the second female South Sudanese politician to serve the position, suggesting that he could have waited until Khamisa returned from Egypt where she is on an official visit.
Kiir in a Republican Decree readout on the state-owned South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC), announced the removal Khamisa, replacing her with Mayiik Ayii Deng, the former presidential affairs minister who was fired in 2020 following a scandal surrounding the Juba-Bahr el Ghazal highway construction.
The dismissal of Khamisa has also been criticised by activists as a violation of the 2018 peace agreement because the replacement was not a woman. The peace deal provides for the allocation of 35% of positions at all levels of government to women. This has not been respected by the SPLM and some other signatories to the agreement.
Khamisa was appointed in March last year following the formation of the Reconstituted Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGONU) provided for in the revitalised peace agreement which witnessed the appointment of several opposition officials representing several signatories of the revitalised peace agreement into the government.