(Bloomberg) -- South Sudan President Salva Kiir called on the population to remain calm amid rumors that the dismissal of a number of top military officials may trigger violence in the conflict-prone nation.
Kiir, a former rebel leader who became South Sudan’s first president after it gained independence from Sudan in 2011, has cancelled elections scheduled for next month. He’s also struggling to contain a cash crisis after a pipeline carrying oil that accounts for more than 90% of government revenue ruptured inside war-torn Sudan.
The malaise has fueled fears about instability and a return to war in the world’s youngest country. Rumors circulated around the capital, Juba, this week that Kiir suspended military intelligence chief General Stephen Marshall. Army spokesperson Major-General Lul Ruai Koang said the claims, which spread on social media, were “baseless and the work of warmongers.”
“Our army is intact and together with our security agencies are discharging their patriotic duty effectively,” Kiir said in a statement Thursday. “Learn to defy these rumors. Never take them seriously, because they are lies.”
Last month, Kiir replaced Lual Maroldit, the commander of his presidential guard unit, known as the Tigers. He also fired the national spy chief, General Akol Kur. Gunfire erupted around Kur’s house last week after national security officers attempted to move Kur to a new location.
Kiir on Tuesday also replaced the head of his government’s peace negotiating team in Kenya, which is holding talks with exiled opposition leaders, with a long-time ally.
“There is a conflict risk centered around the disintegration of Salva Kiir’s patronage network,” said Daniel Akech, a senior analyst on South Sudan for the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank.
Akech said discussions among rival groups in South Sudan had begun on who should take over from Kiir, who is 73 and in poor health.
Pressure on Kiir has mounted since February, when a pipeline that ferried more than 150,000 barrels of crude oil to the Red Sea coastline in Sudan ceased operating after a blockage.
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