South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has issued an order sacking an undersecretary at the foreign affairs ministry less than a month after firing the foreign affairs and international cooperation minister.

President Kiir, according to the order broadcast by the state-owned South Sudan Television, removed Abdun Terkoc and replaced him with Joseph Ayok Anei, a relative of General Paul Malong Awan, chief of staff of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), the official army of South Sudan.

Terkoc, a relative of former foreign affairs minister, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, was not given any new assignment and no explanation was given as the reason for his removal, barely two years after his appointment.

Sources at the foreign ministry during a series of interviews on Wednesday attributed the cause of the removal of Terkoc from his position to dissatisfaction with his performance at the ministry.

File photo: Abdoun Terkoc (left) at an event with the IGAD Executive Secretary Mahboub Maalim earlier this year