New South Sudan delegation to PAP to emerge next week

Speaker of the Parliament of South Sudan, Rt. Hon. Jemma Nunu Kumba will next week, nominate new members of South Sudan delegation to the Pan African Parliament, sources from the parliament have revealed.

This followed the inauguration of the new parliament on August 2, 2021 and the swearing in of a new speaker.

It would be recalled that President Salva Kiir of South Sudan in first week of May 2021, dissolved the Parliament of South Sudan and reconstituted a new parliament whose members were sworn in on August 2, 2021 with Madam Kumba as the first female speaker.

“The nomination of a new South Sudan delegation to PAP after the inauguration of the new parliament by Madam Kumba is in accordance with the provisions of both the PAP Protocol and the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament” the source disclosed.

“The Clerk of parliament does not have any power under our rules to designate members to the Pan African Parliament”.

Born in 1966, Ms. Kumba joined the SPLM rebels in the early 1990s in the civil war against Khartoum.

She then became an active member of the party and participated in peace negotiations between the SPLM and the Sudanese government, then led by Omar al-Bashir.

After independence in 2011, Ms. Kumba held several official positions, including the governor of the southwestern state of Western Equatoria.

In late 2013, the country plunged into a civil war between Kiir and Riek Machar, sworn enemies, killing more than 380,000 people and displacing four million in five years.

Under a peace agreement signed in 2018 between Kiir and Machar, in a government of national unity, parliament was dissolved and then "reconstituted", from 400 to 550 lawmakers.

Of these, 332 were appointed by Kiir, 128 by Machar, and 90 by the other signatory parties.