Newly-nominated Jonglei Governor Mahjoub Biel. (File photo).

President Salva Kiir sacked Jonglei State governor Denay Jock Chagor on Wednesday and picked Mahjoub Biel Turuk as his replacement, after relieving the latter from his roles in the national parliament.

Kiir appointed Hon. Biel in a decree read on state-owned television SSBC, three years after his failed bid to become a governor, due to internal wrangles within their alliance.

Prior to the administrative changes, Mahjoub Biel was a member of the national parliament and Chief Whip of South Sudan Opposition Alliance – one of the signatories to the 2018 peace accord.

During the 2020 formation of the unity government, in which SSOA was handed one Jonglei governorship position, Biel and Chagor were both nominated by their respective parties for the role.

The National Democratic Movement (NDM) nominated Biel while the Federal Democratic Party (FDM) wanted then Higher Education Minister Chagor, swapped to the governorship.

President Kiir then appointed Chagor as Jonglei State governor after relieving him from the higher education ministry in July 2020. His three-year reign was marked by civil servant unrests, and humanitarian crisis caused by incidents of intercommunal violence and seasonal floods.

Gabriel Changson Chang was further named the National Minister of Higher Education.