NEWS- South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit has dismissed the country’s long-serving Intelligence Chief Gen Akol Koor Kuc and replaced him with a close ally Akec Tong Aleu.
President Kiir made a presidential decree dismissing Gen Akol Koor Kuc, who had headed the controversial Internal Security Bureau of the National Security Service (NSS) since the country’s independence from Sudan in 2011, a week after the transitional government announced yet another election delay.
Last month Kiir’s office announced an extension of the transitional period by two years and postponed elections for a second time following a delay in 2022, drawing criticism from the United States and other international guarantors of the country’s peace process.
It’s however, not clear why Gen Akol Koor was dismissed because calls to the government spokesperson and the office of the President were not answered.
Rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have long warned that the secretive National Security Service commands excessive power in the country, operating with impunity against civil society and activists who challenge the government.
Analysts have disclosed that the decision to sack the Intelligence Chief Akol Koor, reflects a power struggle at the highest levels of the government.
“There’s been a lot of reckoning in terms of what to do with Akol Koor. The President doesn’t want very rapid decisions to cause a problem with national security,” Policy and Security analyst Dr Boboya James said.
Dr Boboya noted that with the extension of the peace agreement, President Kiir would want to consolidate power by beginning to bring loyalists into government and it is known that the new Intelligence Chief, Gen Akec Tong Aleu is a close ally of Kiir.
South Sudan ended five years of civil war in 2018, but disagreements between President Salva Kiir and his Deputy Dr Riek Machar who led the opposing sides in the conflict have been major obstacles to completing the peace process.
Additional Reporting from Associated Press
