PH
South Sudan’s labour minister left his post on Friday and proclaimed his allegiance to rebel leader Riek Machar, making him the second top official to resign in the war-torn nation this week.
Gabriel Duop Lam, who joined a unity government last year as a member of Machar’s opposition, did not give a reason for his resignation in a statement released to the press, but declared his “full allegiance and commitment” to the exiled rebel.
Information Minister Michael Makuei confirmed to AFP that Lam as well as his deputy had “defected” and had left to Khartoum.
“It will not have any impact and it is just individual behaviour. Those who have gone away have their right to go,” he said.
Swaka accused President Salva Kiir and top members of his majority Dinka tribe of “ethnic cleansing” and of blocking efforts to implement a 2015 peace deal.
War broke out in oil-rich South Sudan in 2013, just two years after it achieved independence, after Kiir accused his former deputy Machar of plotting a coup.
An August 2015 peace deal, which led to the formation of a unity government, was left in tatters when fighting broke out in Juba in July last year.
The opposition split in two between those loyal to exiled Machar who were no longer represented in government, and those loyal to new vice-president Tabang Deng.
