South Sudan has its first female Speaker of Parliament

The acting secretary general of the ruling party in South Sudan, Jemma Nunu Kumba, will be the first woman to preside over the parliament of the youngest country in the world that gained independence ten years ago.

President Salva Kiir, also a leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), announced on Friday afternoon the appointment of Kumba to the head of a recently “reconstituted” parliament.

“Jemma (Nunu Kumba) will be the next president” of Parliament, declared the head of state during a general meeting of the party in Juba, the capital of the country.

The announcement was greeted with applause by the audience.

Born in 1966, Kumba joined the SPLM rebels in the early 1990s in the war that pitted them against the government-led Sudanese forces in Khartoum.

He was then active in the party and participated in the peace negotiations between the SPLM and the Sudanese government led at the time by Omar Al Bashir.

After independence in 2011, Kumba held various official positions, including that of Governor of the state of Western Equatoria (Southwest).

At the end of 2013, the country fell into a civil war that opposed Salva Kiir and Riek Mashar, sworn enemies, and that left more than 380,000 dead and four million displaced in five years.

In application of a peace agreement signed in 2018 between Kiir and Mashar, currently president and vice president in a national union government, Parliament was dissolved and then “reconstituted” last May, from 400 to 550 legislators.

Article Source