defence minister - The African Mirror

Mar

2023

South Sudan president appoints own defence minister, breaching peace deal

WAAKHE WUDU SOUTH Sudan's President Salva Kiir has appointed a member of his own party as defence minister, according to a decree read on state media, breaching a peace deal in which the role should be selected by the party of opposition leader Riek Machar. Kiir fired defence minister Angelina Teny, who is also First Vice President Machar's wife, along with the interior minister this month, re-igniting long-standing disagreements over how the two war veterans share power. Kiir and Machar's forces signed a peace agreement in 2018 that ended five years of civil war that killed 400,000 people and triggered Africa's biggest…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

South Sudan president holds ‘frank deliberations’ with vice president

NEWS

SOUTH Sudan President Salva Kiir held "frank deliberations" with opposition leader First Vice President Riek Machar on Friday, the minister of presidential affairs said, a week after Kiir breached a peace agreement by sacking two top security ministers. The meeting was held in a collegial spirit but ended in deadlock, Machar's office said in a statement. Kiir fired defence minister Angelina Teny, who is also Machar's wife, and interior minister Mahmoud Solomon last Friday moves that threaten to unravel a fragile peace agreement that ended the 2013-18 civil war. The president also handed the defence ministry to his party, a role which,…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

South Sudan president fires two ministers

NEWS

SOUTH Sudan President Salva Kiir has sacked two top security ministers, violating the terms of a peace agreement with opposition party leader First Vice President Riek Machar. Kiir fired the country's defence minister Angelina Teny, who is also Machar's wife, and interior minister Mahmoud Solomon in a presidential order read on state TV late on Friday, Lily Martin Manyiel, the President's spokesperson said on Saturday. "There is no reason I can give you right now" for their sacking but "it's a normal procedure usually," Manyiel said, adding that no decision had yet been made on their replacements. Kiir and Machar's…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Mali restores ousted defence minister

NEWS

MALI's transitional government announced on Friday it had restored Colonel Sadio Camara as defence minister after his removal from office was one of the factors that led to a coup that toppled President Bah Ndaw last month. Camara was one of the leaders of an earlier coup in August last year that ousted then-President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. Military officers detained Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane on May 24, hours after they announced a new government that excluded Camara and another colonel involved in the Aug. 2020 coup, Modibo Kone, who had been in charge of security. The appointment of…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Don’t be cowards,” minister tells Nigerians

NEWS

NIGERIA’S defence minister prompted criticism yesterday for urging Nigerians not to "be cowards" and to stand up to armed bandits, while security forces embarked on a mission to rescue 42 people kidnapped from a boarding school this week. The comments by Bashir Salihi Magashi, a retired army major, came on Wednesday, hours after gunmen abducted dozens of people, including 27 students, from the Government Science secondary school in the Kagara district of north-central Niger state. The Nigeria Police Force, in a statement on Thursday, said a massive search and rescue mission was being carried out alongside the military in which…