Dr. Lam Akol, leader of the National Democratic Movement, interviewed by Eye Radio on July 3, 2024 - Photo by Lou Nelson/Eye Radio

JUBA, (Eye Radio) – President Salva Kiir has appointed Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin as Minister of Transport, marking his return to government for the first time since his resignation in 2016. The appointment, announced through a series of presidential decrees.

In a presidential decree broadcast on state-run SSBC, President Salva Kiir on Wednesday announced a cabinet reshuffle, relieving Higher Education Minister Gabriel Changson Chang, Transport Minister Madut Biar, and Defense Ministry Undersecretary Kuol Deng Kuol of their duties.

In the same decree, Kiir appointed Madut Biar as the new Minister of Higher Education and named Dr. Lam Akol as Minister of Transport.

Kiir further appointed General Gregory Deng Kuach as the new Undersecretary in the Ministry of Defense, replacing Kuol. Gen Kuach was first relieved from his post as Deputy Director General of the General Intelligence Bureau, National Security Services (NSS).

Who is Dr. Lam Akol?

Dr. Lam Akol Ajawin, 75, is the current leader of the National Democratic Movement (NDM), a party under the umbrella of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA).

A former high-ranking official in the SPLM/A, he subsequently became the Foreign Minister of Sudan from September 2005 to October 2007, when the Khartoum government offered the southern movement several other key ministries as part of the CPA.

He was one of only two ministers in the unity government who did not belong to either Kiir’s SPLM or Machar’s SPLM-In-Opposition. He represented an alliance of non-armed opposition parties. After his resignation, his deputy from the same alliance took over in an acting capacity.

Dr. Lam, a prominent opposition figure, stepped down from the unity government formed under the 2015 peace agreement, which aimed to end more than three years of civil war. At the time, he declared the agreement “dead” following renewed clashes in July 2016 between forces loyal to President Kiir and those aligned with then-First Vice President Riek Machar in Juba.

Speaking from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Akol said, “Since the agreement is dead and there is no free political space in Juba, the only sensible way to oppose this regime and restore genuine peace is to organise from outside.”

In 2017, President Salva Kiir officially dismissed Dr. Lam Akol from his position as Minister of Agriculture—months after Akol had already resigned in August 2016.

However, when the president later issued a formal decree removing Akol, no permanent replacement was named, and the deputy was not elevated to full minister, leaving a leadership gap at the ministry.

Dr. Akol is a graduate of Chemical Engineering from the University of Khartoum, who later completed his PhD studies at Imperial College London. He joined the SPLA in 1986 after having been a clandestine member since October 1983.

In 1991, he joined Dr. Riek Machar to break from the SPLM/A and form the Nasir faction. He later parted ways with Machar in February 1994 and formed his faction.

In March 1998, Dr. Akol signed the Fashoda Peace Agreement with the Khartoum government and was appointed Sudan’s Minister of Transportation, a post he held for four years.