JUBA: South Sudan Minister for Water and Irrigation died in the Egyptian capital Cairo on Sunday morning, his political party chairman Dr Riek Machar confirmed.
Peter Manawa Gatkuoth, who was appointed during the formation of the revitalised coalition government in March 2020, died of high blood pressure in an unnamed hospital in Cairo, Egypt.
News of his death first surfaced on social media on Sunday morning and was later confirmed by South Sudan’s First Vice President Machar in a press statement, describing the late minister as a youth leader to the core during the then Sudan’s civil liberation war to date.
“Flown from Juba to Egypt after being attended to in Freedom and Baraka Hospitals for chest pain in Juba, in Cairo, he was diagnosed to have been suffering from high blood pressure that destroyed the main vein to his heart, stomach and kidney. Yesterday [Saturday], the doctors tried to replace his vein, but he passed on at 5.00 am Sunday,” Dr Machar said in his statement.
He said preparations were underway for his body to be flown to Juba and that burial arrangements would be communicated later.
The late Manawa was the Sudan People Liberation Movement-In Opposition (SPLM-IO) chair of the National Committee for Information and Public Relations. He also served as a member of the SPLM-IO Political Bureau.
“On behalf of SPLM/A-IO and South Sudanese people, I am conveying our deep condolences to his family, members of the revitalised unity government and members of SPLM-IO as a party,” said Dr Machar.
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