South Sudan's President Salva Kiir has appointed General Santino Deng Wol as the new head of the army, Kiir's spokesman said on Sunday, as part of a wider reshuffle within the government.

The director general of the security services and the deputy minister of defense were also replaced, the spokesman told Reuters.

Violence is still raging in vast swathes of South Sudan a year after a peace deal was signed to end a civil war that began in 2013, according to a recent United Nations report.