South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir on Wednesday fired his foreign minister who had held his post through the country’s 27-month civil conflict, a media report said.

In a presidential decree read out on national television, Kiir gave no reason for firing Barnaba Marial and also did not say who would succeed him.

However, the move followed calls for Marial to resign after he had been accused of erroneously stating that prominent academic Luka Biong was Sudanese instead of South Sudanese.

South Sudan had been engulfed by violence since power struggle between Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar evolved into military conflict in December 2013.

Report says tens of thousands have been killed and more than 2.3 million displaced.

According to the report, a peace deal signed in August foresaw the establishment of a transitional government which had been delayed.