Elijah Malok Aleng Passed Away

Elijah Malok Aleng is a South Sudanese public servant, general, and politician, from Bor in Jonglei State. He was born on 28 November 1937 in Thianwong, a Pen village about five miles East of Baidit in Central Bor among the Angakuei clan. He attended Rialbek Bush School in 1949, where he passed at the end of the school academic year and he attended Malek Primary School (1950–1953), and then Juba Intermediate School and Juba Commercial Senior Secondary School, graduating He then atrtended Free University of the Congo, in the present Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and later got a scholarship to study in Fribourg Catholic University, Switzerland, from which he obtained a Masters degree in Economics in 1972 In 1975 he obtained another Masters in Development Studies and Economic Planning from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.

He was elected a Member of Parliament (MP) representing Bor North territorial constituency in the regional parliament of Sudan in May 1982.

Early career

He enrolled in the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/SPLA) on 28 December 1983 and became active in its ranks. He started as one of the senior political commissars in June 1984, and then he went to joined the Cadet Military College, graduating with the rank of a Major. He was posted in Southern Blue Nile front, where he was the second in command after the late A/Cdr Wilson Kur Chol. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) forces of Eagle Battalion, which they were commanding, were largely made up of Dinka elements from Northern Bahr el Ghazal specifically from Abiei, Gogrial and Aweil Counties. He remained in Southern Blue Nile front until mid-1987 when he was accredited to francophone West Africa as a special envoy of the movement. He was the SPLM Resident Representative in the Peoples’ Republic of the Congo, with non-residential representation in Zaire (now DRC), Gabon, Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR), Rwanda, Burundi and Chad. He was primarily stationed in Brazzaville, Congo, but travelled from time to time in the various capitals.

Positions and roles in Africa

He remained in Francophone Africa until the advent of multi-party democracy in 1991. In June 1991, he was appointed Executive Director of the SRRA where he remained until January 1993, when he was transferred and became the spokesman of the SPLM in East Africa, a duty he carried out for the whole of 1993. In January 1994, he was appointed Secretary of the national Convention Organising Committee (COC), which organized the First SPLM/A National Convention. The convention was successfully held in Chukudum, New Sudan, in April/May 1994. After this convention such SPLM structures as the General Military Council (GMC), National Liberation Council (NLC) and National Executive Council (NEC) were instituted. He was elected member of NLC representing Bor North territorial constituency and he also became a member and Secretary of the First NEC in the portfolio of Co-ordination and Public Service. In 1997, he was reshuffled away from public service and coordination to an advisory role in the Office of Chairman and C-in-C of the SPLM/SPLA. In that capacity, he became the advisor on economic, financial and political affairs. In February 1999, he was again appointed, for the second time, the Executive Director of the SRRA and ex-officio member of the NEC on humanitarian affairs in New Sudan. When peace negotiations began between various Sudan governments and the SPLM between 1985-2005, he was always the Secretary of the SPLM to the Peace Talks continuing until the CPA was signed in January 2005. In 2005 he was appointed Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sudan (CBOS) and President of the Bank of Southern Sudan (BOSS).

Post-South Sudan independence

After the independence of South Sudan on 9 July 2011, he became the de facto Governor of the Bank of South Sudan (BSS) until he was dismissed by President Salva Kiir Mayardit and replaced by his deputy Kornelius Koryom Mayiik in August 2011. He introduced the first currency ] of the country which is the South Sudanese Pound. He co-signed the historic currency with the then Minister of Finance, Deng Athorbei. As a governor he tried his best to fight corruption and misssuse of public funds .

He is still within the ranks of Sudan People Liberation Army (SPLA) with the rank of a Lieutenant General. He has written a book Southern Sudan Struggle for Liberty published by the East Africa Publishers in 2009.