President Salva Kiir - Credit: Office of the President

President Kiir has relieved the Deputy Director General for Administration and Finance of the National Security Service’s Internal Security Bureau (ISB-NSS), Lt. Gen. Louis Natale, apparently as part of a reshuffle targeting the country’s top security leadership.

Gen. Natale was replaced with Lt. Gen. Charles Mayor, in a similar Presidential Decree announced on state-owned television SSBC on Friday evening.

He was appointed in April 2022, when the head of state formed a unified armed forces command as part of the security arrangement stipulated in the 2018 peace agreement.

Natale’s removal comes after his former boss Gen. Akol Koor Kuc was also relieved on 2nd October and replaced with Gen Akec Tong Aleu, ending his 13-year reign as ISB-NSS Director General.

Gen. Kuc returned from abroad after being named the governor of Warrap State – received by a huge crowd at Juba airport – only for his appointment to be revoked in a decree on the same day of his arrival.

In October 10, the SSPDF officially announced the transfer of Maj. Gen. Lual Wek from being the commander of Presidential Guards known as Tiger Division to the 1st Infantry Division in Renk, Upper Nile State.

Maj. Gen. Wek, also known as Lual Maroldit, was succeeded by Maj. Gen. Abraham Gum Makuac.

In May 2017, the president promoted Gen Lual Wek to the rank of Major General and appointed him as commander of the presidential guards unit, the Tiger Division.

He commanded the 9th Infantry Tiger Division for seven years before his subsequent transfer to the Bilpam General Headquarters of the SSPDF, where he was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division in Renk.