South Sudanese President Salva Kiir has issued an executive order appointing Deng Mading Mijak as head of the Abyei Joint Oversight Committee, a mechanism by which Sudan and South Sudan are meant to negotiate over the disputed area.

Mijak was deputy on the committee and replaces its outgoing head Edward Lino.

It is unclear why Kiir waited so long to remove Edward Lino given that he has been a leading critic of the government narrative that there was an attempted coup d’etat in December 2013.

In a series of articles published on various websites and blogs, Lino has been repeatedly dismissing the coup as a fabrication.

Nyakuch Ngor Chol was made the new deputy of the committee, which will be supervised by the minister at the presidency. 

File photo: Edward Lino