Kiir snubs supposed meeting with Acuei over health ministry crisis

JUBA – South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit has on Tuesday snubbed a meeting with the country’s minister of health that was supposed to resolve the power struggle crisis at the ministry of health, a spokesman for First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny has said.

This comes after minister Acuei suspended the undersecretary in the ministry of health Victory Anib Majur after Vice-President Hussein Abdelbaggi sided with the undersecretary when she made a appointments at the ministry while the opposition-nominated minister was away for the UN General Assembly in September.

First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny met with President Kiir over the weekend to discuss the crisis. The meeting which was attended by VP for service delivery Hussein Abdelbaggi directed Machar to resolve the power struggle at the ministry.

Puok Both Baluang, the Press Secretary in the Office of the First Vice President and Director of Information of the SPLM-IO National Committee for Information and Public Relation said minister Acuei was supposed to meet President Kiir yesterday but did not manage to meet the president.

“Unfortunately she did not manage yesterday hopefully maybe today she can meet with the President after that his excellency will come and sit with the concerned persons on how to resolve the matter permanently,” Baluang said in an interview with the Juba-based City Review newspaper.

The senior South Sudan opposition official further said Machar hasn’t yet started the process to ease tensions at the ministry because he hasn’t yet met the people involved in the crisis, such as the minister and the suspended undersecretary.