Kosti Manibe Ngai, a former finance minister of South Sudan and veteran politician, has died in Nairobi at the age of 78 after a long illness related to heart disease, his family said on Tuesday. After the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Manibe served as Sudan’s minister of humanitarian affairs in the Government of National Unity in Khartoum from 2005 to 2007, before becoming minister of investment. He later moved into the administration of the semi-autonomous Government of Southern Sudan. Shortly after independence, Manibe was appointed minister of finance and economic planning, taking over from David Deng Athorbei in August 2011. In June 2013, Kiir suspended Manibe and then-Cabinet Affairs Minister Deng Alor Kuol and lifted their immunity over allegations related to the transfer of nearly $8 million to a private company.