An entire senior management team of the United States State Deparment has resigned under the new adminstration of President Donald Trump, local media has reported.
Four leading US officials from the State Department, which advises the United States president and leads the country in foreign policy issues, left their posts on Wednesday, but the reason for the walkout has not been confirmed, the Washington Post stated.
Patrick Kennedy, the department's undersecretary for management; Joyce Anne Barr, assistant secretary of state for administration; Michele Bond, the assistant secretary of state for consular affairs; and Gentry Smith, director of the office of foreign missions, resigned unexpectedly, the United States newspaper reported on Thursday.
A week ago, Trump's nominee for Secretary of State, former Exxon Mobil Corp chairman Rex Tillerson, was confirmed by the Senate foreign relations committee. He has yet to be confirmed by the full Senate.
The departures by the State Department's officials will put more pressure on Tillerson to fill these senior posts.
In a separate development, the United States Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan, a former longtime FBI agent, has left the agency, a source familiar with his departure told the Reuters news agency on Thursday. The reason for his departure was not immediately clear.
The resignations came soon after Trump signed an order for a controversial wall on the border with Mexico. He has also in his first week of office signed orders restricting visas and immigration from countries including Somalia, Sudan, Iran, Yemen and Iraq, and the entry of refugees.
Aljazeera