South Sudan President Salva Kiir has sacked his finance and planning minister after just six months in office. In a presidential decree on Friday evening, Kiir replaced Dr Bak Barnaba Chol with Daniel Awow Chuang. South Sudan is primed to go to polls for the first time in December even as indications are that the election will be pushed back by at least two more years. Chuang, an engineer, was a minister for petroleum just two years ago before he was sacked.
He was later appointed as a technical advisor in the finance and planning ministry under Dr Bak. Eng Chuang becomes the 12th minister of finance and planning since independence on July 9, 2011 - and the 20th since 2005 when South Sudan signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that marked its separation from the Arab north. Dr Bak's sacking comes on the back of the country's civil service going six months without salary amid skyrocketing inflation. In February, he angered a section of war veterans with comments after their protest over delays in payment of medical allowances