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Cabinet reshuffle announced

    NAIROBI

    President Omar el-Bashir announced a cabinet reshuffle this week in which he appointed new defence and interior ministers. In a brief announcement carried by the official media - which gave no reasons for the changes - the cabinet affairs minister, Abdalla Hassan Ahmed, and the agriculture minister, Adam Yousif, were replaced by Lieutenant-General Abdel Rahman Sir al-Khatim and Abdel Halim Musa respectively. The defence portfolio went to Major-General Bakri Hassan Saleh, the former presidential affairs minister. The former interior minister, Major-General Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, assumed Saleh's post. Al-Hadi Abdalla, formerly director of internal security, was appointed interior minister. Khatim was previously defence minister, and Musa was a regional minister in eastern Sudan.

    The changes follow the defection of cabinet minister Ahmed and agriculture minister Yousif from the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) to join a new political party headed by Sudan's chief Islamic ideologue Hassan al-Turabi. Turabi, 68, was sacked as secretary-general of the NCP on 26 June and immediately announced the formation of the Popular National Congress. He had accused Bashir of betraying the NCP charter and violating press freedoms.

    In other changes, Ibrahim Suleiman, the former aviation minister, was moved to federal relations. Former director general of the Civil Aviation Authority Shambol Adlan was put in charge of the aviation ministry. Ahmed Ibrahim al-Tahir, formerly federal relations minister, was appointed peace affairs adviser replacing Nafie Ali Nafie who was appointed secretary for organisational contacts in NCP.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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