SOUTH SUDAN PRESIDENT PICKS 5TH VICE-PRESIDENT

By Our Correspondent, Juba SOUTH SUDAN

South Sudan President, Salva Kiir, has finally picked Gen. Hussein Abdelbagi Akol as his fifth deputy on the opposition alliance ticket, ending days of speculation.

South Sudan President, Salva Kiir shaking hands with the fifth Vice-President, Gen. Hussein Abdelbagi Akol

The post was left vacant by Kiir on Friday after members of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA), an umbrella grouping of eight opposition parties, failed to select one candidate for the vice president position.

Members of the opposition alliance had nominated six leaders from their various political organizations for the post and authorized President Kiir to pick one of the candidates.

The move was rejected by National Democratic Movement (NDM), a member of the opposition coalition. It said that the choice of a position belonging to the opposition alliance cannot be made by another party to the peace deal.

Khalid Butrous, a member of the opposition coalition and head of the National Salvation Front faction, told reporters here this afternoon that the president has appointed Gen. Hussein Abdelbagi as his fifth deputy as part of the peace deal.

“We met today in the presence of President Salva Kiir and Sudan’s leader Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan. We agreed at the meeting to authorize the president to pick one of candidates on the list,” he said.

The opposition official said they welcome the appointment of Gen. Hussein Abdelbagi as the fifth vice president of the transitional government of national unity.

 “The president has already issued a decree appointing Gen. Hussein Abdelbagi as the vice president. Hussein has already been sworn-in as vice president at the presidential palace,” he explained.

Gen. Hussein abdelbagi hails from Northern Bahr el Ghazal State.

According to the revitalized peace agreement, the First Vice President will oversee the Governance Cluster while the four vice-presidents will supervise Economic Cluster, Services Delivery Cluster, Infrastructure Cluster and Gender and Youth Cluster.

The cluster of every one of the four vice-presidents will be determined in a meeting chaired by President Salva Kiir.

The SPLA Brigadier General Hussein Abdelbagi Akol Agany had defected in March 2016 and joint a rebel faction loyal to the late Peter Gadet Yak.

However, he joined the South Sudan Patriotic Movement of Costello Garang Ring Lual and appeared with him during the preparatory meetings of the High-Level Revitalization Forum (HLRF) in October 2017.

Stephen Lual Garang, the SSOA deputy spokesman, told Sudan Tribune that the other leaders of the alliance Josephine Joseph Lagu, Lam Akol, Joseph Bangasi Bakasoro, Khalid Butrous and Gabriel Changson will be consoled with the ministerial positions allocated to the alliance.

The SSOA has three ministerial portfolios and a deputy minister.

Khalid revealed that the opposition alliance will submit the final list of its ministerial nominees on Monday for their appointment into the cabinet. “We are planning to meet so that we agree on the nominees,” he concluded.

President Kiir on Friday dissolved the previous government and appointed opposition leader Riek Machar as first vice president, after the two men finally agreed to form a long-delayed unity government.

James Wani Igga, Taban Deng Gai, and Rebecca Nyandeng De Mabior were also named vice-presidents as part of the unity government. - Africa