Late Water Resources minister was “leader on his own”: Kiir

June 19, 2022 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s President, Salva Kiir has described late Manawa Peter Gatkouth as a “leader on his own,” who will be remembered for leadership roles played as a youth in the country’s political scene.

Manawa, who serving as South Sudan’s minister for Water Resources and Irrigation, died on Sunday morning at a hospital in Cairo, Egypt.

“On behalf of my family, the government and people of South Sudan, I offer my heartfelt condolences to his family, his colleagues in the cabinet, his staff at the ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, his community and all South Sudanese that are affected by his sudden departure,” noted Kiir’s June 19 condolence message.

The South Sudanese leader descried the minister’s death as “untimely”

Separately, South Sudan First Vice President Riek Machar described the deceased as a “committed nationalist”, who was a strong believer in reform right from his university days as a youth leader in the Sudan.

“He was committed to do his outmost in achieving prosperity for people of South Sudan,” he wrote in a condolence message issued on Sunday.

Manawa, who hailed from Akobo County in Jonglei State, previously served as Minister for Physical Infrastructure prior to the outbreak of the civil war in 2013.

A senior member of the armed opposition’s (SPLM-IO) political bureau, Manawa was in March 2022 appointed minister for Water Resources and Irrigation as part of the power sharing arrangement in the September 2018 peace agreement.

In November 2020, he was selected chair of Nile Council of Ministers’ (Nile-COM), the highest political and decision-making body of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) states.

(ST)