Lam Akol Ajawin

Foreign Affairs: Lam Akol Ajawin SPLM; Upper Nile Collo (Shilluk); MSc petroleum engineering Herriot Watt Scotland; PhD chemical engineering Imperial College London; U of K ex-lecturer; knows North; cheerful and outgoing: NIF hopes for 'Mister Smile II'...

As civilian politicians gradually displace the soldiers there is special interest in the futures of Lam Akol Ajawin (Shilluk) James Wani Igga (Equatorian) and Nhial Deng Nhial (Tonj Dinka touted last year as Salva's successor) and veteran politico Bona Malwal Madut Riing now back in Khartoum on good terms with President Omer el Hassan Ahmed el Beshir but sent there we hear by Salva Kiir...

Sudan lost another Vice-President Lieutenant General Zubeir Mohamed Salih in a crash at Nasir Upper Nile in 1998 when a former Garang deputy Major Arok Thuon Arok who'd gone over to the regime also died; another pro-regime Southerner Lam Akol Ajawin survived and this July Garang made him a provincial governor...

Nuer in-fighting has been impressive too especially since the 1991 split in the SPLA led by Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon (a Dok Nuer now back with Colonel John Garang de Mabior's SPLA/M) and Lam Akol Ajawin (also back in the fold)...

The idea of accepting some SPLA people into government sounds like an echo of the Khartoum Peace Agreement made in 1993 with Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon and Lam Akol Ajawin...

(Lam Akol's militia is Shilluk and separate AC Vol 43 No 5)...

A spokesman for Lam Akol Ajawin's Southern Sudan Liberation Army (Shilluk) welcomed the Riek-Garang pact and offered to talk to the SPLA; Lam has grown critical of the government to which he belongs...

Ahmed Ibrahim el Tahir: as NIF MP worked for Sharia implementation before coup; chief government delegate peace talks with Lam Akol Ajawin's Sudan People's Liberation Army (United) Nairobi May 1993; State Minister Legal Affairs at Presidency 1994-5; Presidential Legal Advisor 1996; low-profile possible compromise candidate...

The NIF signed up to the DOP in 1997 to coopt the southern factions led by Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon and Lam Akol Ajawin...

August 1989 Addis Ababa Ethiopia; Mohamed el Amin Khalifa led an NIF delegation to meet Lam Akol of the Sudan People's Liberation Army; Sharia (Islamic law) was the stumbling block; result - no agreement...

January 1992 Germany; Frankfurt Agreement between Ali el Haj Mohamed and Lam Akol after SPLA split in 1991; sources close to Lam told AC the accord was meaningless; agreement but no progress...