Akol was a high-ranking member of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels which fought the Khartoum government until a peace agreement was signed in 2005, paving the way for South Sudanese independence in 2011.
Akol with Riek Machar split from the SPLA in 1991 but rejoined the movement before the peace deal, which saw the SPLM - the political wing of the SPLA - form a unity government with Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP).
Akol served as Sudan’s minister of foreign affairs in the SPLM-NCP Government of National Unity from 2005 until 2007 but was withdrawn by the SPLM apparently because Juba was troubled by his closeness with the NCP. Two years later he formed the SPLM-DC to compete against the SPLM in 2010 general elections.
As the only candidate to stand against the incumbent President of Southern Sudan Salva Kiir, Akol received 7.01% of the vote. The SPLM-DC won 2 of the 170 seats in the National Assembly making the SPLM-DC officially South Sudan’s largest opposition party.
Since the election the SPLM-DC and more specifically Lam Akol has been repeatedly linked with armed rebel groups in Upper Nile state by the SPLM and SPLA. Akol has previously threatened to take SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amum, who is also from the Shilluk ethnic group in Upper Nile State, to court over the allegations.
After South Sudan’s independence in July last year Akol held a reconciliation summit in with Kiir in Nairobi and briefly returned to Juba but the allegations have continued to resurface.
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The Invasion of Abyei: two years of more agony 2013-05-20 05:39:13 By Luka Biong Deng May 19, 2013 - On 21st May 2013, the people of Abyei have spent two years of more agony and they will remember again the sad memories of how their lives and livelihoods were (...)
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