South Sudan’s president dismissed his foreign minister Thursday after a row with Washington led US authorities to revoke all visas granted to South Sudanese.
The dispute occurred after South Sudan sent back a Democratic Republic of the Congo citizen who had been deported by US authorities in early April.
The US administration accused South Sudan of not taking back its deported citizens and “taking advantage of the United States”.
President Salva Kiir fired foreign minister Ramadan Mohamed Abdalla Goc in a decree signed Wednesday night but released Thursday. The decree named Monday Semeya Kumba as the new minister.
Earlier this week, the ousted minister said the Congolese national had been deported by the United States under a false name, and had therefore been sent back in line with South Sudan’s “immigration protocols”.
South Sudan said on Tuesday that it had finally agreed to take the deported man “in accordance with the friendly relations between South Sudan and the United States”.
US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said she was “waiting for the government of South Sudan to follow through, and we will then be ready to review these measures when South Sudan cooperates fully”.
