In South Sudan, the head of intelligence, General Akol Koor Kuc, was dismissed on Wednesday October 2 by President Salva Kiir. It was by a decree, read on national television, that this decision was announced. His dismissal caused a lot of reaction. Fears of destabilization of the country have been expressed, while South Sudan postponed its elections for two years in mid-September.
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With our correspondent in Juba, Florence Miettaux
Akol Koor Kuc had been in office since the country’s independence in 2011. In another decree, announced on the same occasion, President Salva Kiir appointed him governor of the state of Warrap, a region in the center of the country. – where both are from – but Akol Koor Kuc has not yet accepted the position, nor communicated his intentions.
The dismissal of General Akol Koor Kuc is a major surprise for the vast majority of South Sudanese, as the director of the Internal Security Bureau of the National Security Service (NSS) seemed all-powerful, almost untouchable.
The reasons for his dismissal have not been given and speculation is rife.
The fact that the decision was announced while Akol Koor Kuc was outside the country – he is currently in Dubai, according to several sources – suggests that the main person concerned did not expect it. This absence from Juba prevents Akol Koor Kuc from putting up any resistance or interfering with the taking office of his successor, General Akec Tong Aleu, considered close to Salva Kiir.
Thus, while two years of extension of the transition have just begun, with the postponement of the elections to December 2026, the dismissal of Akol Koor Kuc could presage other changes at the highest level, to consolidate the authority of Salva Kiir over time, according to an observer.
The South Sudanese president perhaps also wishes, according to this same source, to distance himself from the serious human rights violations perpetrated by the NSS services under the control of Akol Koor Kuc for 13 years.
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