South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit on Monday evening appointed a new presidential advisor affiliated to First Vice President Riek Machar’s SPLA-IO.
Through presidential decree read out on state-owned media in Juba, President Kiir appointed Gen. David Reath Malual Luak as the Presidential Advisor for Peace.
The peace advisor position has been vacant since former SPLA-IO chief of general staff Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual declined to take up the position in June 2021.
It remains unclear whether Gen. Gatwech Dual, who defected from Machar and signed a separate peace agreement with President Kiir early this year, had been promised a new position.
The new presidential advisor, appointed in accordance with terms of the 2018 peace deal, is a senior military general of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-In Opposition (SPLA-IO) led by Machar.
Before the 2013 civil war, Gen. David Reath Malual served as Malakal Central Prison Director.