JUBA, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's opposition Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO), led by First Vice President Riek Machar, on Wednesday called for the reinstatement of two party officials who were dismissed from the transitional unity government by President Salva Kiir.

Yolanda Awel Deng, minister of Health, and Alfred Futuyo Karaba, governor of Western Equatoria State, were among the nine officials fired on Monday by a presidential decree read on the South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation.

Machar rejected what he termed a "unilateral decision" by the president to remove the officials in violation of the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement, which calls for collegial decision-making among the signatory parties prior to making major changes within the transitional unity government.

"The political bureau calls on President Salva Kiir to uphold the Revitalized Peace Agreement as the persistent violations through unilateral decisions and decrees threaten the very existence of the agreement," Machar said in a statement issued in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.

Machar also condemned the alleged attempted assassination on Futuyo by officers of the South Sudan People's Defense Forces (SSPDF).

He said the SSPDF attacked the official residence of Futuyo and other SPLM-IO members in Yambio and Tambura towns in the aftermath of his dismissal.

Kiir has yet to appoint the country's minister of health and the governor of Western Equatoria State.

The 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement gives prerogative to the SPLM-IO to appoint the governors of Western Equatoria State and neighboring Western Bahr el Ghazal State. Enditem

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