- President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, has officially announced the appointment of Ms Jemma Nunu Kumba, the incumbent secretary-general of the ruling party, as the next speaker of the newly “reconstituted” parliament.
- The announcement was made at the general assembly of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), in the capital Juba.
- President Kiir is also chairman of the party.
President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, has officially announced the appointment of Ms. Jemma Nunu Kumba, the incumbent secretary-general of the ruling party, as the next speaker of the newly “reconstituted” parliament. The announcement was made at the general assembly of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), in the capital Juba . President Kiir is also chairman of the party.
She will become the first woman to preside over the parliament of South Sudan, the world’s youngest country and will be responsible for the implementation of the peace agreement. Born in 1966, Ms. Kumba joined the SPLM in the early 1990s. She has been an active member of the party and was part of the peace negotiations between the SPLM and the Sudanese government, then led by Omar al-Bashir. Since independence in 2011, Ms. Kumba held several official positions, including the governor of the southwestern state of Western Equatoria.
A peace agreement was signed in 2018 between Kiir and Machar, now president and vice president in a government of national unity. The parliament was dissolved and then “reconstituted” last May. The current composition of the Parliament has nearly 40 percent of the members of Mr. Machar’s rebel party, the SPLM-IO which makes the task tough for Kumba.
Over and above the political and economic challenges faced by the country, it is also going through its worst food crisis since independence. According to the World Food Program almost 60% of the population is facing a severe food shortage.
