May 4, 2020 (Nyamilepedia) — South Sudan’s First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny has reappointed James Gatdet Dak as the press secretary in his office, opposition officials confirmed on Tuesday.
Senior SPLM-IO official, Nyaneqwek Kuol, confirmed to Nyamilepedia from Juba that Gatdet has been reappointed to the position by Machar and was already in Juba.
James Gatdet served in the position from April 2016 to July the same year when Machar was appointed as the first vice president under a deal signed in August 2016.
Prior to the collapse of the agreement in July 2016, Gatdet had left the country for Kenya to visit his family. Later on, fighting erupted during a meeting between President Kiir and Machar at the state house in Juba.
Machar was later on dislodged from his Jebel base in Juba and then fled to exile. He was later on detained in South Africa for around two years before returning to Ethiopia for peace talks which let to the revitalized peace agreement.
Gatdet was then arrested by Kenyan police and then deport to Juba on November 2, 2017 and detained for around a year before he was sentenced to death.
He was released on November 2, 2018 after Kiir and Machar agreed to share power again following the signing of the revitalized peace agreement in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia two months earlier.
