 | This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia.(November 2009) |
Peter Lam Both (born in 1972) was the first appointed Governor of Latjoor, South Sudan, established by President Salva Kiir on 2 October 2015. [1] [2] Both is a high-ranking South Sudanese diplomat of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), currently serving as Secretary General. [3]
Both was as appointed as Commissioner for National Relief and Rehabilitation Commission in the National Government of South Sudan on 7 June 2012 by President Salva Kiir. He served in this position until 27 November 2013. [4]
Before the outbreak of South Sudan crisis on 15 December 2013, Both alleged on national SSTV that the Vice President was provoking a crisis in the country. Both and a group of other Jikany leaders met with former Vice President Riek Machar on 4 May 2013, during which they warned him not to politicize the community of Nuer in an SPLM power struggle. On 6 May 2013, Both and Riek Machar met in his office in which Riek wanted to find out from him what he talked about on National SSTV on 1 May 2013. In front of his aides, Both explained to Riek that he was taking the country to brink of war by invoking ethnic Nuer sentiments to support his bid for chairmanship of the party rather than using SPLM political platform to convince voters to elect him. Both was the first official to call on South Sudanese leaders to stop the crisis before it happened, but instead, Both was criticized by Dr. Riek's supporters like Hon. Gatluak Riek Jaak and Hon. John Chuol Char saying that he was not being truthful and that Dr. Machar was not provoking any crisis in the country. Both was also criticized by Nuer Diaspora elements who are staunch supporters of Dr. Riek Machar. But, Both was vindicated on 15 December 2013 when war broke out and members of the Nuer community became victims of the crisis because they are from Riek's ethnic group. Both remained loyal to SPLM under the leadership of President Salva Kiir Mayardit as a symbol of unity and national integration.
Peter Lam Both served as State Minister of Information and Communications in Upper Nile State from June 2010-May 2012. He was also appointed as SPLM Deputy Secretary for External Relations on August 28, 2009. Both was previously posted to Canada from May 2006- November 2008 as the first official Representative of the SPLM to Canada. Both was also acting as the Chief Representative for the newly formed Government of Southern Sudan. Both was charged by the SPLM leadership to organize SPLM Chapters in various cities of Canada and to rally the support of the Government of Canada for SPLM and Government of Southern Sudan.
Both helped form 14 SPLM Chapters across the country with membership of over 4000. Both managed to diplomatically seduce Canada to accept SPLM and work with the Government of Southern Sudan, which finally culminated in the establishment of the Liaison Office for the Government of Southern Sudan in Ottawa in 2008 in accordance with the provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement(CPA) and the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan. Canada is known internationally for refusing to work with rebels, a case signaled by their refusal to work with the former leader of SPLM Dr. John Garang de Mabior. Both was one of the key leaders of Sudanese community in Canada who defeated Talisman Energy of Canada.
Both, a lecturer of Social Work at the University of Calgary, University of Lethbridge and Mount Royal College in Canada, joined SPLM in 1986 after he fled from Sudan at the age of 14 due to civil war. He lived in various refugee camps in Ethiopia, but managed to continue his education with the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR). Both graduated with B.A. in Political Science and International Relations (1996) in Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia (the oldest university in the continent). Both also graduated with Bachelor of Social Work (2002) and Masters of International Social Work (2004) from the University of Calgary. Both is in his final stages of his Ph.D. dissertation in the Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary.
In addition to his diplomatic work as SPLM/GOSS Representative to Canada, Both has extensive diplomatic experience in his work with United Nations in Ethiopia (1996), India (2003) and Jordan in 2005. He has worked with various organizations in Canada including Calgary Catholic Immigration Society as Settlement Officer (1998–2000) and with the City of Calgary as Community Development Officer (2002–2005) and as a Social Planner with the City of Calgary (2005–present). Both led the first ever SPLM delegation from Canada in May 2008 to participate in the Second SPLM National Convention in Juba where Both played a key role in mobilizing the delegates to maintain the unity of SPLM by proposing to keep the current leadership as it is. The SPLM unity was at stake in the convention, but the party rose to the challenge and opted to keep the status quo.
Both submitted his resignation to the chairman of the SPLM on November 15, 2008, stating that he was time pressed with his studies. But those who monitored the situation in Canada said that he was humiliated when the Liaison Office for the Government of Southern Sudan was appointed and left him and key SPLM leaders in Canada out of the office. Both did not know how to explain this action to the SPLM leaders in Canada who thought Both had a role in the appointments. At the same time, Both could not point fingers at the leaders in Juba who actually did the appointments due to the political sensitivity of the issue. The appointments made were seen by all southern Sudanese in Canada as tribally motivated, but what is puzzling is that Both is known to detest tribalism and could not possibly be linked to those appointments. Resignation was an easy route for him to avoid being associated with those appointments. But Both always denied those claims, saying that he has completed the work he was asked to do. Both always says, "I have accomplished what was hard to do; what has remained now is the day today management of the chapters and the nurturing of our bilateral diplomatic relations with Canada, which does not require rocket science."
In January 2023, the SPLM swore in Peter Lam Both as its Secretary General. [3]
His publications include South Sudan: forgotten tragedy (2003) [5] and International Relations of Ethiopia (2004). [6] Both has also published peer-reviewed articles with Journal of Social Work [7] and Journal of Educational Action Research in 2008. [8]
Salva Kiir Mayardit, also known as Salva Kiir, is a South Sudanese politician who has been the President of South Sudan since its independence on 9 July 2011. Prior to independence, he was the President of the Government of Southern Sudan, as well as First Vice President of Sudan, from 2005 to 2011. He was named Commander-in-Chief of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLM/A) in 2005, following the death of John Garang.
Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon is a South Sudanese politician who served as the First Vice President of South Sudan.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement is a political party in South Sudan. It was initially founded as the political wing of the Sudan People's Liberation Army in 1983. On January 9, 2005 the SPLA, the SPLM and the Government of Sudan signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, ending the civil war. SPLM then obtained representation in the Government of Sudan, and was the main constituent of the Government of the then semi-autonomous Southern Sudan. When South Sudan became a sovereign state on 9 July 2011, SPLM became the ruling party of the new republic. SPLM branches in Sudan separated themselves from SPLM, forming the Sudan People's Liberation Movement–North. Further factionalism appeared as a result of the 2013–2014 South Sudanese Civil War, with President Salva Kiir leading the SPLM-Juba and former Vice President Riek Machar leading the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition.
The politics of South Sudan concern the system of government in the Republic of South Sudan, a country in East Africa, and the people, organizations, and events involved in it.
The SPLA-Nasir was a splinter faction of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), a rebel group that fought in the Second Sudanese Civil War. Originally created as an attempt by the Nuer tribe to replace SPLA leader John Garang in August 1991, it gradually became coopted by the government. The break away of Riek Machar from SPLM/A resulted in Nuer ethnic group massacring Garang's ethnic Dinka from Bor in the Bor massacre in 1991. This split resulted in the 1994 National Convention of New Sudan in Chukudum.
William Nyuon Bany Machar was a Southern Sudanese politician who was also one of the founders of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). He was appointed third in command after John Garang and Kerubino Kuanyin Bol. While he worked as a commander of the SPLA he lived in Itang, a small Ethiopian town in the Gambela Region.
Gabriel Gatwech Chan, more commonly known by the nickname Tang-Ginye or Tanginye meaning "long pipe", was a Nuer and a commander in various primarily Nuer rebel militias in South Sudan. General Tanginye led a southern border militia allied to the Khartoum government during Sudan's civil war. Members of the Sudanese armed forces loyal to Tanginye in Malakal clashed with the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in 2006, killing about 150 people, and in 2009 in breach of the peace deal. In April 2011, clashes between his militia and the SPLA in the state of Jonglei killed at least 57 according to government officials. Shortly thereafter, Tanginye surrendered to SPLA forces and was placed under house arrest in Juba awaiting charges against him. During the South Sudanese Civil War, he allied with the SPLA-IO and later Lam Akol's militia, a Juba linked rebel group called the National Democratic Movement (NDM) and became its chief of staff. In January 2017 he visited a NDM-allied group, the Tiger Faction New Forces, in the Hamra area in the northern Upper Nile. In course of this visit, the Tigers were attacked by SPLM-IO-affiliated fighters belonging to the militia of John Uliny, and Tanginye was killed alongside most of the Tigers.
Peter Gatdet Yak, better known as Peter Gadet, was a South Sudanese general and SPLA commander who became the leader of the South Sudan Liberation Army (SSLA), a rebel movement in South Sudan.
Taban Deng Gai is a South Sudanese politician who has been one of the Vice Presidents of South Sudan in the unity government since February 2020. He served as the First Vice President of South Sudan from 23 July 2016 to February 2020. He was mining minister before being appointed as acting first vice president.
Paulino Matip Nhial, or Matiep Nhial, was a military leader and politician in South Sudan.
The South Sudan Democratic Movement (SSDM), sometimes called the South Sudan Democratic Movement/Army (SSDM/A), was a South Sudanese militant group. Along with its armed wing, the South Sudan Defence Army (SSDA), rebelled against the government of South Sudan led by President Salva Kiir Mayardit and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement.
Telar Ring Deng was a South Sudanese politician and statesman.
The South Sudanese Civil War was a multi-sided civil war in South Sudan between forces of the government and opposition forces. In December 2013, President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar and 10 others of attempting a coup d'état. Machar denied trying to start a coup and fled to lead the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO). Fighting broke out between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and SPLM-IO, igniting the civil war. Ugandan troops were deployed to fight alongside the South Sudanese government. The United Nations has peacekeepers in the country as part of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition, also known as the anti-governmental forces (AGF), is a mainly South Sudanese political party and rebel group that split from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in 2013, due to political tensions between President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar over leadership of the SPLM. Tensions grew between forces loyal to Kiir and Machar and South Sudan plunged into the South Sudanese Civil War.
Simon Gatwech Dual is a Sudanese rebel Major General who was born in around the late 1930s in what is today Uror County, Jonglei state, South Sudan.
AmbassadorEzekiel Lol Gatkuoth is a South Sudanese retired diplomat and politician and a former Minister of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan, after having been appointed by President Salva Kiir Mayardit on Tuesday 2 August 2016.
The Ethiopian Unity Patriots Front is a political party and militant rebel organization that waged an insurgency against the Ethiopian government from 1993 to 2012. Formed by ex-officials of the Derg regime, the EUPF was mostly active in Ethiopia's Gambela Region as well as eastern Sudan and South Sudan. The group agreed to a ceasefire with the Ethiopian government in 2012, and officially ended its insurgency in 2016. The EUPF remains active, however, and its armed wing has reportedly been involved in the South Sudanese Civil War, although to what extent is disputed.
Puot Kang Chol is a South Sudanese politician. Puot is currently the Minister of Petroleum in the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity (R-TGoNU) as of 2022. He is also a member of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement In-Opposition (SPLM-IO).
Following South Sudan's independence, 45 prominent Jieng (Dinka) politicians and elders formed the Jieng Council of Elders, which is chaired by a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Ambrose Riiny Thiik. The JCE is a tribal advisory committee to South Sudan President Salva Kiir, and it has been accused by Justice Deng Biong of advising Kiir on "divisive ethnic policies". The JCE is often accused of being behind hardline SPLM policies, and radicalisation of young Dinka.
The Nuer massacre, which occurred from December 15 to December 18, 2013, was a well-organized, intentional mass killing perpetrated against thousands of Nuer civilians by Dinka SPLA soldiers, Presidential Guard - Tiger Division, and Mathiang Anyoor, supported by Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF), orchestrated by the President of the Republic of South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit, Jieng Council of Elders (JCE), and Dinka high-ranking military generals within the SPLA army in Juba. More than 47,000 Nuer civilians were massacred in four days between December 15 and December 18, 2013. A couple of years later, the death toll was projected to be over 50,000 Nuer civilians as fighting rapidly engulfed the entire region of Upper Nile.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
