CEPO Director Edmund Yakani | Photo: File/ Office of the President

A civil society leader has welcomed the appointment of a new governor for Western Equatoria State but expressed concern that the SPLM party has taken over a position that was originally allocated to the SPLM-IO.

President Salva Kiir appointed James Al-Taib, a former lawyer, as the new governor of Western Equatoria State in a presidential decree issued last evening.

According to media reports, the newly appointed governor belongs to the Kiir-led SPLM party.

It is not clear why the president reassigned the governor’s position to his own party, which was initially allocated the deputy governor’s seat under the 2020 power-sharing reached between the parties.

Edmund Yakani, the Executive Director of Community Empowerment for Progress Organization and a signatory to the peace agreement, said the appointment could help address the ongoing instability in the state.

However, Yakani said the move appears to go against the power-sharing arrangement outlined in the peace deal.

“Yes, it’s good to have a full-scale governor, but we wish could have been within the spirit of the R-ARCSS because this is a total swap of the seat of the governor from SPLM-IO to SPLM, which has happened equally in Upper Nile State,” he said.

“And this raises a question and raises a number of concerns around maintaining the spirit of the R-ARCSS and working within the spirit and the letter of the R-ARCSS. It is a bridging of the R-ARCSS,” he added.

He urged the country’s leadership to prioritize political consensus and uphold the spirit of the agreement through dialogue and consultation.

“We wish that this particular move should have been done with consultation with the signatory to the R-ARCSS that mainly meant SPLM IG and SPLM IO would have consultation in swapping of these seats.

“We are a bit worried that this type of violations may lead to the total undermining of the R-ARCSS and may make some parts where signatory access seems to be pushed out of the R-ARCSS,” he added.

Yakani added that the 2018 peace deal remains the only legitimate political framework for moving South Sudan from conflict to peace.

The appointment comes nearly six months after former governor Alfred Futuyo Karaba, a member of the SPLM-IO, was removed in a similar presidential decree issued in February.