Mapping Actors and Alliances Project in South An initiative of the Small Arms Survey’s Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) Project www.maapss.org Update No. 1

MAAPSS Update 16 June 2020 The new South Sudanese Cabinet: Ministerial appointments in the Revitalized Transitional Government of National —SPLM, SPLA-IO, and SSOA

Introduction Kiir’s cabinet appointments also saw familiar faces remaining in government. With the announcement in March 2020 of Michael Makuei Lueth, a Bor Dinka, the new South Sudanese cabinet in the retained his position as Minister of Transitional Government of National Unity Information, as did Martin Elia Lomuro, the (TGoNU), several new faces entered the Minister of Cabinet Affairs from Lainya government. Some of them are hold-overs county in . Even from the CPA-period, while others are seemingly less well-known appointments relatively inexperienced. This update on the have long held major positions inside the new South Sudanese cabinet will help the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement international community identify its future (SPLM). For example, Jemma Nunu partners and understand the import of these Kumba, a Zande, was the governor of personnel decisions. (2008-2010) before holding several ministerial positions since Business as usual: Kiir’s regime 2011. She is now the Minister of continues Parliamentary Affairs.

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has The SPLM-In Government (IG) has also retained people who have guaranteed his succeeded in effectively controlling some control of national security. These include positions designated for the opposition by Obuto Mamur Mete, a Torit-born Lotuko and exploiting a split within the the Minister of National Security, and Malek Opposition Alliance (SSOA), a coalition of Reuben Riak Rengu, a Yirol Dinka and the nine opposition parties. Disagreements Deputy Minister of Defense and Veteran between SSOA factions began over the Affairs. He has also retained or rewarded chairpersonship of the alliance and with new positions those involved in his intensified in the run-up to the party’s investments in the country. This includes selection of a vice-president (VP) to fill the Salvatore Garang Mabiordit, a Rek Dinka last of five such positions. Unable to agree, and the incumbent Minister of Finance. two leading members of the SSOA, Albino Bol Dhieu, a Maluai Dinka and the Josephine Lagu and Denay Chagor, asked former leader of the South Sudan Youth Kiir to choose the fifth vice-president from Union, is the new Minister of Youth and amongst a list of SSOA nominated Sports. Kuol Athian Mawien, a Malual members. Kiir chose Hussein Abdelbagi, a Dinka, is the new Minister of Trade. Malual Dinka. This selection rewarded Abdelbagi’s ties to Sudan and further marginalized former SPLA Chief of General

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Mapping Actors and Alliances Project in South Sudan An initiative of the Small Arms Survey’s Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) Project www.maapss.org Update No. 1

Staff Paul Malong by giving such a appointments tethered to expectations to prominent position to another politician from fulfil ministerial duties. his native . Abdelbagi’s selection was subsequently While retained his position rejected by SSOA member and National as a VP, he gained less than others in the Democratic Movement (NDM [LA]) new government. Gai’s utility, from Kiir’s chairman on grounds that the perspective, is lessened now that Machar selection process violated the R-ARCSS. has returned to government. Some of Gai’s The other four VP appointments were to chief supporters, such as Ezekiel Lol , , Taban Gatkuoth, a Jikany Nuer and the former Deng Gai, and Rebecca Nyandeng de Minister of Petroleum, were not given Mabior. positions, while others, such as Richard K. Mula, the Muru former Minister of Federal On 12 March, Lagu and Chagor provided Affairs, lost their positions (in his case to the Cabinet Affairs Minister Martin Elia Lomuro Kakwa SPLA-IO politician Lasuba Ladoru a list of names to fill three SSOA-designated Wango). However, Taban Deng Gai still has cabinet positions. Lagu and Chagor—both a role to play in Kiir’s organization of politics among the names nominated—were in South Sudan. He has extensive financial subsequently appointed as Minister of networks abroad, as well as enduring Agriculture and Food Security and Minister loyalty among some armed forces in Unity of Higher Education, respectively. Although state, including the Tahrir militias in Koch Chagor, a Lou Nuer from Dengjok payam county. Michael Chiengjiek Geay, Taban (Jonglei), seemingly lacks any meaningful Deng’s former security advisor, retains a political constituency, he successfully government position as the new Minister of played the game of politics to secure Land, Housing, and Urban Development his appointment. (Paul Mayom Akech replaced Geay as Minister of the Interior). Geay and his Bul The third SSOA appointee to a ministerial Nuer-kinsman, Tut Kew Gatluak, remain position was Joseph Bakosoro, a central highly influential in Unity state. Zande politician and former governor of Western Equatoria, named Minister of Gatluak, an associate of the Sudanese Public Service and Human Resource former President Omar al-Bashir during the Development. Many inside Western second civil war (1983-2005), organized the Equatoria were disappointed with this relationship between the Sudanese appointment because they were hoping for government and the Bul Nuer militias under a vice-presidency position or governorship. the command of Paulino Matiep that Nevertheless, in Bakosoro’s case, as with ravaged the territory around Unity state’s oil other appointments, too much importance fields from late 2013 to 2015. In the current should not be placed on titles of ministerial government, Gatluak is the chief South positions. There is ample precedent to Sudanese mediator in negotiations between suggest that some positions are simply Sudan and rebel groups and a presidential prebendal politics—stipends furnished to advisor on security affairs. Importantly, political allies (or rivals) rather than Gatluak’s central role in South Sudanese politics—a role consecrated in the current

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Mapping Actors and Alliances Project in South Sudan An initiative of the Small Arms Survey’s Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) Project www.maapss.org Update No. 1

cabinet—speaks to a wholesale reversal in government continues. Nadia Arop Dudi, South Sudanese politics over the last the Minister of Culture, Museums, and decade. Those figures close to former National Heritage, and Simon Mijok Mijak, SPLM leader , and hostile to the Minister of Roads and Bridges, are the the former-National Congress Party (NCP) only Padang Dinka given ministerial posts. regime in , have been However, Padang disappointment is to a marginalized or excluded from Kiir’s SPLM. degree offset by the formal creation of the Now the South Sudenese State is Ruweng Administrative Area (RAA) as part dominated by those close to (or former of Kiir’s apparent compromise in returning members of) the now-dissolved NCP. to ten states. The RAA answers long-held Gatluak is foremost among this group. Padang desires to have a political space separated from the majority-Nuer Unity This regional realignment is the most state. important development in South Sudanese politics in the last decade. At an internal The previously powerful Ngok Dinka of level, the delicate ethnic balance of cabinet have no ministerial representation at positions continues. The Bor Dinka, among all in the new cabinet. This reflects the the main Dinka constituencies within the waning importance of the once central issue SPLM-IG, continue to have a strong of the Sudan-South Sudan border. presence in the cabinet with Michael Makuei and Deng Dau Deng Malek as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Initially, Regional balance within the there was surprise in Bor that there was no TGoNU (ministers and deputy position for , the former ministers) Minister of Defense. However, his appointment as Senior Presidential Advisor Greater mollified those anxious about the Bor Dinka Equatoria power-base in government. 27% 36% Greater Upper Kiir also appointed a number of Rek Dinka Nile from Gogrial, including Awut Deng Achuil as 37% the Minister of General Education and Greater Bahr el Instruction and Joseph Malek Arop as the Ghazal Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs. Gogrial is also the home of Akol Koor Kuc, the Director of Internal Security within the National The ethnic calculations underlying the Security Service (NSS). Koor is the most creation of the cabinet form only part of a important political and military leader in broader calculus of political and economic South Sudan, and his forces have effective alliances. Indeed, cabinet positions command of the capital. themselves constitute a relatively unimportant part of the political equation in The principal losers among the Dinka are South Sudan. Cabinet positions have the Padang, whose marginalization from neither the finances nor the autonomy that

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Mapping Actors and Alliances Project in South Sudan An initiative of the Small Arms Survey’s Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) Project www.maapss.org Update No. 1

would enable ministers to exercise any Machar’s choices for the cabinet are authority or independence from the Office of reflective of his extremely weak position in the President. Many of these political South Sudan; he is almost as little a leader positions, such as Denay Chagor’s, are of the opposition today as Taban Deng Gai arguably financial rewards for loyalty. was after Machar fled Juba in July 2016. His Others, such as Baba Medan Konyi’s choices to fill SPLA-IO cabinet minister and position as Deputy Minister of Information or deputy minister positions reflect these Khalid Boutrous’ appointment as Deputy straitened circumstances. Among the Minister of Public Service and Human relatively important positions that the SPLA- Resource Development, are mollifying gifts IO was allowed to choose—including the to make up for David Yau Yau retaining Ministries of Defense and Veterans’ Affairs, control the Greater Pibor Special Petroleum, Mining, and Health—Machar Administrative Area (GPSAA). In all cases, has chosen either family members power is concentrated in the two men at the (including his wife, and son’s mother-in- top of the hierarchy: President Salva Kiir ), or close allies, such as Henry Dilang and Akol Koor Kuc. Odwar as the Minister of Mining. Odwar, an elderly Lango politician, is also the Deputy It’s a family affair: Machar’s SPLA-IO Chairman of the SPLA-IO, and one of the few men that Machar trusts. The formation of the TGoNU and Machar’s choices for the cabinet have set in motion a Machar also picked relatively young and/or wave of desertions from the SPLM/A-IO inexperienced politicians who he can easily [RM] that likely presages the fragmentation control, such as newly appointed Minister of of the opposition. Superficially, the cabinet Petroleum Puot Kang Kuol, the former appears to reflect that the SPLA-IO is a Chairman of SPLM-IO Youth Union. broad coalition: only a third of appointments are Nuer, and many of Machar’s choices are Machar’s appointment of his wife, Angelina from important Equatorian and Dinka Teny, as Minister of Defense, was also constituencies. Underlying this apparent controversial. Many in the SPLA-IO see this balance, however, is the central story of the as a self-serving appointment, designed to SPLA-IO cabinet. draw power (and wages and cash) narrowly around Machar’s family and to the exclusion Ethnicity of cabinet members of other important figures inside the SPLA- within the SPLM-IO IO. Her appointment is not without some merit, however. Teny previously served in Dinka Khartoum as Deputy Minister of Petroleum 8% in the Sudanese cabinet. More recently, she 33% Nuer was the co-chair of the Strategic Defense 25% and Security Review Board (SDSRB), Equatorian which was designed to plot the future of 33% Other (Fertit, South Sudan’s army. Machar also Shilluk, Murle) appointed his son’s mother-in-law, the Dinka Elisabeth Acuei Yol, as Minister of Health.

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Mapping Actors and Alliances Project in South Sudan An initiative of the Small Arms Survey’s Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) Project www.maapss.org Update No. 1

Since July 2015, the leading military These resignations were soon followed by commanders of the SPLA-IO have others. James Nando Mark, an important expressed disquiet with the political SPLA-IO Division 9B Commander in leadership around Machar, which they Western Equatoria, defected to the consider self-centered and more interested government on 26 March 2020, again in gaining power in Juba than in obtaining blaming SPLA-IO leadership. On 16 April, a justice for the Nuer civilians killed in number of principally Jikany Nuer SPLA-IO December 2013 in the capital. Sometimes, politicians also defected. This group was led this has resulted in commanders by Dak Duop Bichiok, a Nasir-born member abandoning the movement. Following of the SPLA-IO political bureau. He had Machar’s announcements of SPLA-IO hoped to be appointed Minister of cabinet appointments, important defections Petroleum and was angered by the choice occurred almost immediately. These may of ’s supporter, Puot Kang begin an inexorable cascade of desertions Kuol, for the position. In the letter that will leave Machar, effectively, without a announcing their defection, the group again military power-base. accused Machar of using his position to enrich himself and his family. On 17 March, James Koang Chuol, the co- chair of the Joint Defense Board (JDB), There are signs that the joint military announced that he would join the South operation of SPLA-IO and SSPDF against Sudan People’s Defense Force (SSPDF) Thomas Cirillo’s National Salvation Front under Kiir. Koang, a Jikany Nuer and the (NAS [TC]) in former Yei River state has led former Chief of General Staff for the SPLA- to a growing dissatisfaction with Riek IO, is a commander widely respected in Machar among Equatorian members of South Sudan. He was joined by Gathkor SPLA-IO. If left unresolved, the issue could Gatluak Koryom, co-chair of the Joint further erode the movement in Equatoria. Military Ceasefire Commission (JMCC), For Machar, the danger is that these Wang Chany, a member of the JDB defections become a cascade. Further Technical Team, and Joseph Albiros Yata, defections would make him a weaker the SPLA-IO commander of Division 2B in opposition figure and could eventually leave Central Equatoria. In their joint resignation him powerless militarily and politically. letter, the commanders complained that Machar’s appointments were made without There are SPLA-IO commanders, however, consulting the SPLA-IO military command, who are unlikely to defect to the SSPDF. and they turn the opposition group into a The two most powerful that remain loyal to “family Affairs [sic] or business enterprise.” the SPLA-IO are currently in Khartoum: the Their resignations are indicative of a new Shilluk general Johnson Olonyi and the reality in which core members of the SPLA- current SPLA-IO chief-of-staff Simon IO have been marginalized by Machar’s Gatwech Dual, a Lou Nuer. appointments and political maneuvring. Among their respective home communities, This reveals that Machar has become opposition to the government is strong and increasingly alienated from the real substantive. Their loyalty to Machar now opposition on the ground. rests on the government’s choices for state

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Mapping Actors and Alliances Project in South Sudan An initiative of the Small Arms Survey’s Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) Project www.maapss.org Update No. 1

governorships ( in Olonyi’s case, Michael Makuei Lueth – Minister of and Jonglei for Dual). Unlike cabinet Information – SPLM-IG positions, the governorships are active Lasuba Ladoru Wango – Minister of positions that come with real political power Federal Affairs – SPLM-IO and responsibility. If Machar concedes too John Luk Jok – Minister of East African much to the government, and the Community Affairs – SPLM-FD (Died: 2 governorships in Greater Upper Nile are not June 2020) taken by figures palatable to Olonyi and Salvatore Garang Mabiordit – Minister of Dual, then the possibility is strong that both Finance and Planning – SPLM-IG men will leave the SPLA-IO. Subsequently, Puot Kang Chuol – Minister of Petroleum – the ‘opposition’ in Juba will effectively be SPLM-IO controlled by the government, while the Henry Dilang Odwar – Minister of Mining – substantive opposition (consisting of the SPLM-IO National Salvation Front in Equatoria, Josephine Lagu Yanga – Minister of Olonyi’s Agwelek in Upper Nile, and Dual’s Agriculture and Food Security – SSOA Lou Nuer forces in the Bieh/Akobo regions (PDM-P) of Jonglei) will be elsewhere. In this Onyoti Adigo Nyikwec – Minister of scenario, the ‘real’ opposition will not be Livestock and Fisheries – SPLM-IG included within the peace agreement at all. (SPLM-DC) Kuol Athian Mawien – Minister of Trade List of ministers and deputy ministers and Industry – SPLM-IG Josephine Napwon Cosmos – Minister of of the Transitional Government of Environment and Forestry – SPLM-IG National Unity nominating party Manawa Peter Gatkuoth – Minister of (as of 15 June 2020) Water Resources and Irrigation – SPLM-IO

Michael Chiengjiek Geay – Minister of Martin Elia Lomuro – Minister of Cabinet Land, Housing, and Urban Development – Affairs – SPLM-IG SPLM-IG (SPLA-IO [TDG]) Nhial Deng Nhial – Minister of Presidential Rizik Zachariah Hassan – Minister of Affairs – SPLM-IG Wildlife, Conservation, and Tourism – Beatrice Khamis Wani – Minister of SPLM-IG Foreign Affairs and International Dhieu Mathok Diing – Minister of Cooperation – SPLM-IG Investment – SPLM-IG (SPLA-IO [TDG]) Angelina Jany Teny – Minister of Defense Denay Jok Chagor – Minister of Higher and Veterans’ Affairs – SPLM-IO Education – SSOA (SSUM) Paul Mayom Akech – Minister of Interior – Awut Deng Achuil – Minister of General SPLM-IG Education and Instruction – SPLM-IG Stephen Par Kuol – Minister of Peace Elisabeth Acuei Yol – Minister of Health – Building – SPLM-IO SPLM-IO Reuben Madol Arol – Minister of Justice Bangasi Joseph Bakosoro – Minister of and Constitutional Affairs – SPLM-IG Public Service and Human Resource Obuto Mamur Mete – Minister of National Development – SSOA (NMC) Security – SPLM-IG James Hoth Mai – Minister of Labour – Jemma Nunu Kumba – Minister of SPLM-IG Parliamentary Affairs – SPLM-IG

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Mapping Actors and Alliances Project in South Sudan An initiative of the Small Arms Survey’s Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) Project www.maapss.org Update No. 1

Peter Marcello Nasir – Minister of Energy NAS [KB] National Salvation Front [Khalid and Dams – SPLM-IO Boutrous] Madut Biar Yel – Minister of Transport – NCP National Congress Party SPLM-FD NDM National Democratic Movement NDM [LA] National Democratic Movement – Simon Mijok Mijak – Minister of Roads and Lam Akol Bridges – SPLM-IG NMC National Movement for Change Ayaa Benjamin Warille – Minister of NSS National Security Service Gender and Social Welfare – SPLM-IO OPP Other Opposition Parties Alliance Peter Mayen Majongdit – Minister of RAA Ruweng Administrative Area Humanitarian Affairs – OPP SPLA Sudanese People’s Liberation Army Nadia Arop Dudi – Minister of Culture, SPLA-IO Sudanese People’s Liberation Army - Museums, and National Heritage – SPLM- in Opposition IG SPLM Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement Albino Bol Dhieu – Minister of Youth and SPLM-FD Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – Former Detainees Sports – SPLM-IG SPLM-IG Sudanese People’s Liberation Army – Deng Deng Akon – Deputy Minister of in Government Cabinet Affairs – SPLM-IO SPLM/A-IO [RM] Sudanese People’s Deng Dau Deng – Deputy Minister of Liberation Movement/Army – in Opposition Foreign Affairs and International [Riek Machar] Cooperation – SPLM-IG SPLM/A-IO [TDG] Sudanese People’s Malek Reuben Riak – Deputy Minister of Liberation Movement/Army – in Opposition Defense – SPLM-IG [Taban Deng Gai] Joseph Malek Arop – Deputy Minister of SSOA South Sudan Opposition Alliance Justice and Constitutional Affairs – SPLM- SSUM South Sudan United Movement TGoNU Transitional Government of National IG Unity Agok Makur Kur – Deputy Minister of VP Vice President Finance and Planning – SPLM-IO Lily Albino Akol – Deputy Minister of Disclaimer Agriculture and Food Security – SPLM-IG Information provided in this Update is sourced Martin Tako Moyi – Deputy Minister of from field research conducted by Small Arms General Education and Instruction – Survey and HSBA experts, including interviews with officials from the SPLM, SSPDF, SPLA-IO, SPLM-IG local and state leaders, and other prominent Khalid Boutrous Bora – Deputy Minister of officials both in and outside of South Sudan. Public Service and Human Resource Where appropriate, in-text links are provided Development – SPLM-IG (NAS [KB]) for secondary source material.

Baba Medan Konyi – Deputy Minister of Information – SPLM-IG

Acronyms and abbreviations GPSAA Greater Pibor Special Administrative Area JDB Joint Defense Board JMCC Joint Military Ceasefire Commission NAS National Salvation Front

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