S.Sudan president sacks Upper Nile governor after clashes with ethnic militia

20/3/2025 16:41

South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has sacked the governor of northeastern Upper Nile state where clashes have escalated between government troops and an ethnic militia he accuses of allying with his rival and First Vice President Riek Machar.



The latest development compounds a confrontation between the two men that started after the White Army militia forced government troops to withdraw from the flashpoint town of Nasir near the Ethiopian border.



In response Kiir's government detained several officials from Machar's party SPLM-IO, including the petroleum minister and the deputy head of the army.



The mounting standoff has fuelled fears that the world's newest nation could slide back into conflict about seven years after it emerged from a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands.



In a decree read on state TV late on Wednesday, Kiir sacked Upper Nile governor James Odhok Oyay who is from SPLM-IO and replaced him with James Koang Chuol, a lieutenant general who hails from Nasir.



Oyay's sacking prompted anger from SPLM-IO which has already partially pulled out of the 2018 peace agreement in protest over the arrests.