President Salva Kiir (from right) is pictured with Defence Minister Angelina Teny at Bilpam, Juba. December 15 2022. (Photo: Office of the President).

President Salva Kiir on Friday evening removed the Minister of Defense and Veteran Affairs Angelina Teny and the Minister of Interior General Mahmoud Solomon.

Angelina Jany Teny is an SPLM-IO politician, who was appointed to the Defense Ministry in March 2020, a month after the unity government formation.

Meanwhile, General Mahmoud Solomon was appointed in November 2021, replacing Paul Mayom Akech as interior minister, according to a presidential decree read out on state television.

In a Republican Decree read out on the national broadcaster – SSBC, the president removed the two national ministers, without replacements.

President Kiir also issued a similar decree switching the Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs to the SPLM and the Ministry of Interior to the SPLM-IO.

Angelina, one of the most prominent women politicians in South Sudan, was previously a state minister of Energy and Mining in the Khartoum-based Government of National Unity between 2005 and 2010.

She ran for election as governor of Unity State in April 2010, but she was defeated in the election that she claims was rigged.