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                       South Sudan Fires Foreign Minister

   by James Butty

   South Sudan President Salva Kiir fired his foreign affairs minister
   Wednesday who served a role throughout the country's 27-month civil
   war.

   In a decree read out on national television, Kiir gave no explanation
   for firing Barnaba Marial Benjamin and also did not name a
   replacement.  However the move followed calls for Marial's resignation
   after comments purportedly made by him that inferred the oil-rich
   region of Abyei was not part of South Sudan.

   "I have been relieved of my duty as the minister of foreign affairs and
   international cooperation for the Republic of South Sudan this evening
   by a presidential decree by my president, Salva Kiir Mayardit.  I
   greatly appreciate the confidence that he has placed in me for the last
   three years as minister of foreign affairs," Marial said.

   He denied he was fired because he had said the oil-rich region of Abyei
   was not a part of South Sudan.

   Abyei is a disputed territory between Sudan and South Sudan whose Ngok
   Dinka population has voted to join South Sudan.  A recent foreign
   ministry statement signed by Marial and sent to the United Nations said
   a prominent Abyei-born academic, Luka Biong, is Sudanese.

   Marial said he supports the Abyei Protocol which says the status of the
   region should be decided by its Ngok Dinka and Misseriya tribes through
   a referendum.

   "Our position, as I articulated as a foreign minister is that Abyei has
   joint sovereignty for the Republic of South Sudan and the Republic of
   Sudan, and that's why the Abyei Protocol said there should be the right
   of self-determination by the nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms to choose
   whether they go back to South Sudan where they originally were or
   remain part of Sudan," Marial said.

   Abyei held an unofficial referendum in 2013 and the region's Ngok Dinka
   ethnic group said it wanted an alliance with South Sudan. But the
   results were never recognized by the governments of both South Sudan
   and Sudan.

   Abyei's other major ethnic group, the nomadic Misseriya tribe, whose
   leaders are allied with Sudan, did not participate in the vote and said
   they would not recognize the referendum results.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/south-sudan-fires-foreign-minister/32
   52339.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/south-sudan-fires-foreign-minister/3252339.html