NAIROBI, Aug 22 : South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has fired the country’s finance minister, state-owned radio announced, the seventh replacement to the position since 2020.
Kiir gave no reason for firing Marial Dongrin Ater, who had held the post since July 2024. State radio said late on Thursday that Athian Ding Athian would take up the position, which he previously held between 2020 and 2021.
Kiir also fired the minister in charge of investment, the radio reported.
South Sudan’s economic performance has faced hurdles in recent years amid communal violence, with crude oil export revenue having dwindled since a 2013-2018 civil war and more recently export disruptions due to war in neighboring Sudan.
The International Monetary Fund forecasts a 4.3 percent contraction of the economy for 2025, and inflation of 65.7 percent for the same period.
Kiir became South Sudan’s first president in 2011 when it gained independence from Sudan.
In March, First Vice President Riek Machar was put under house arrest, eliciting fears of renewed conflict.
Information Minister Michael Makuei said the arrest was due to Machar contacting his supporters and “agitating them to rebel against the government with the aim of disrupting peace so that elections are not held and South Sudan goes back to war.”
Machar’s party denies the accusations.
South Sudan’s president fires finance minister, seventh since 2020
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South Sudan’s president fires finance minister, seventh since 2020
- South Sudan’s economic performance has faced hurdles in recent years amid communal violence, with crude oil export revenue having dwindled since the 2013-2018 civil war
Zelensky says Ukraine’s peace talks with US constructive but not easy
- Trump has said that ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, now nearing its fourth year and the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two, remains his toughest foreign policy challenge
KYIV: Talks with US representatives on a peace plan for Ukraine have been constructive but not easy, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday ahead of his planned consultations with European leaders in coming days.
Zelensky held a call on Saturday with US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and is expected to meet French, British and German leaders on Monday in London. Further talks are planned in Brussels.
“The American representatives know the basic Ukrainian positions,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “The conversation was constructive, although not easy.”
Trump has said that ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, now nearing its fourth year and the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two, remains his toughest foreign policy challenge.
Despite US mediation and periodic high-level contacts, progress in the peace talks has been slow, with disputes over security guarantees for Kyiv and the status of Russian-occupied territory still unresolved.
Moscow says it is open to negotiations and blames Kyiv and the West for blocking peace, while Ukraine and its allies say Russia is stalling and using diplomacy to entrench its gains.
European leaders have backed a step-by-step diplomatic process for Ukraine, tied to long-term security guarantees and sustained military aid. Trump, however, has focused on rapid deal-making and burden-sharing, and diplomats warn that any talks remain fragile and vulnerable to shifts in US politics.
