South Sudanese economist and former finance minister Salvatore Garang Mabiordit has died in the capital, Juba, his family and government officials have confirmed.
Mabiordit died on Thursday evening at AMI Clinic, aged after more than four decades in public service. His family did not immediately disclose the cause of death.
His death comes just days after South Sudan lost another former finance minister, Kosti Manibe Ngai, whose body is expected to arrive in the country on Friday for burial.
The deaths of the two veteran finance officials have brought renewed attention to a generation of economists who played key roles in managing South Sudan’s finances before and after independence.
Mabiordit served as finance minister three times under President Salva Kiir Mayardit, first from 2018 to 2020, again briefly in 2023 and for a third time from February to May 2026.
Before entering the cabinet, he spent nearly a decade as first undersecretary at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, including the period around South Sudan’s independence in 2011.
His public-service career began in the 1980s in finance and auditing. He later held senior positions in regional and national government before working with humanitarian and mine-action organisations in South Sudan and Kenya.
Mabiordit also spent several years in Australia before returning to South Sudan and resuming his government career.
He studied economics at the University of Liberia and later obtained a postgraduate qualification in development finance from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.
Outside government, Mabiordit was also a community leader and served as chairman of the Kuac community, a Rek Dinka community largely based in Gogrial West County in Warrap State.
