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Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin

He was born in 1950 in the Shilluk Kingdom, Upper Nile State. He studied at the University of Khartoum and earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering in 1975. He studied for his Master's degree in Edinburgh, UK, and he obtained a PhD from the University of London. He returned to Sudan in 1980 and became a chemical engineering lecturer at the University of Khartoum. He was a member of secret cells of the SPLA/M in Khartoum until he joined the SPLA rebellion in Ethiopia in 1986. He received military training in Ethiopia and became a zonal commander in the SPLA. In 1991, he and Dr. Riek Machar Teny split from the SPLA of John Garang, and they founded the SPLM-A/ Nasir wing. They accused Dr. John Garang of refusing democracy in the movement. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin defected from the Nasir faction and formed his own military group that advocated for the independence of South Sudan. In 1997, he negotiated and signed the Pashoda Peace Agreement with the Sudanese government. He served as a minister of transportation in Sudan from 1998 to 2002. He returned to the SPLM of John Garang before the peace agreement of 2005. In 2005, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in Sudan. He formed the SPLM-DC in 2008. He served in many various ministerial posts in South Sudan. Currently, he is the Chairman of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) in South Sudan. Many SPLA/M leaders blamed Dr. Lam Akol for engineering the split of 1991 within SPLA/M, when the movement was about to win the Battle of Juba. His critics argue that without the influence of Dr. Lam Akol, Dr. Riek Machar Teny could not have rebelled against the SPLM in 1991, which caused a setback against the liberation struggle and denied the SPLA an imminent victory over the enemy (the Islamic regime of Sudan). Dr. Akol Ajawin has written many books on the politics of South Sudan. long live Mr president