President Kiir fires finance minister Bak Barnaba Chol amid economic crisis

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir on Friday fired his Finance and Economic Planning minister, in an surprising shift that followed an economic crisis.

In a presidential decree read on state-run television, Kiir fired Dr. Bak Barnaba Chol Bak, who was just selected in August last year.

The South Sudanese President replaced Dr. Bak, an economic expert by profession, with Engineer Awow Daniel Chuang, who had worked for years in the Ministry of Petroleum. Previous to his selection, Chuang was serving as the technical advisor to the Petroleum ministry.

President Kiir did not give any details for the firing of the minister of finance – apart from refer to his constitutional powers to assign and eliminate public servants.