Nhial Deng swears in as Minister for Presidential Affairs on June 04, 2020. Photo: PPU.

The newly appointed Minister for Presidential Affairs is expected to embark on solving the disagreement over state allocations among the peace parties, the Presidential Press Secretary has said.

Recently, Kiir unilaterally allocated Central Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria, Lakes, Warrap, Northern Bahr el-Ghazal, and Unity states to the incumbent government.

The President gave Jonglei, Western Bahr el-Ghazal, and Western Equatorial states to the main opposition group, SPLM-IO and he offered Upper Nile State to the South Sudan Opposition Alliance, a decision all parties rejected.

According to the Office of the President, Nhial Deng, who took an oath of office Thursday afternoon, will end the deadlock soon.

“The states’ government issue, nobody has accepted to discuss it again and until now, there is no progress. Let’s see the new minister taking over the presidential office, we will see how best he can organize for further meetings,” Ateny Wek Ateny told Eye Radio on Thursday.

The states have been functioning without governors, ministers, and legislators since February.

Early this month, the UN said the absence of local political leadership at the state levels contributed to the outbreak of inter-communal violence that is claiming daily.