South Sudan’s President Kiir Fires Heads of Central Bank, Supreme Court

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir fired the head of the Supreme Court and the governor of the central bank, a month after the nation gained independence.

Kiir didn’t give reasons for the move in the decrees published yesterday on the Juba-based South Sudanese government’s website. The presidential decrees, issued on Aug. 15, took effect the same day, according to the published documents.

The former governor of the Bank of South Sudan, Elijah Malok, was replaced by a deputy, Kornelio Koryom Manyiik, while Chan Reec Madut will take over as the head of South Sudan’s Supreme Court from John Woul Makec, according to the decrees.

South Sudan was declared independent on July 9, after almost 99 percent of its voters chose to secede from Sudan in a January referendum. At independence, South Sudan gained control of about 375,000 barrels a day of oil, close to 75 percent of the former Sudan’s total output, which was the third-biggest in sub-Saharan Africa.

To contact the reporter on this story: Maram Mazen in Khartoum at mmazen@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net