Veteran S. Sudanese politician Edward Lino Abyei dies at 74
Photo: Veteran South Sudanese politician Edward Wuor Lino Abyei | Credit | Unknown
April 15, 2020 (SSNN) — Veteran South Sudanese politician and SPLM-IO figure Edward Lino Wuor Abyei has died this afternoon in the Indian city of Bangalore a long battle with unidentified sickness, family members and close sources said.
One family source said from Nairobi that Abyei died this afternoon at a hospital in India. The family source however did not mention the kind of sickness Abyei had been suffering.
“He passed away this evening in India at a hospital here,” the source said adding: “I cannot however tell you what sickness he had prior to his death.”
He died at 74.
Abyei has been – since 2015 – suffering from a sickness taking him to several African and Asian countries. He was taken to Egypt in 2019 but his treatment didn’t work and had to be returned to Nairobi where he was initially put under medical care and then to India where he finally passed on today.
Prior to the South Sudanese civil war, Abyei was the South Sudanese Co-Chair of the Abyei Joint Oversight Committee (AJOC). He was also the chairperson of South Sudan’s ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in Abyei.
After the eruption of the ongoing conflict in December 2013, Abyei joined the main armed opposition group, SPLM-IO, led by now first vice president Dr. Riek Machar Teny.
He was an important figure in the ruling SPLM during the time of struggle under Dr. John Garang de’Mabior. He has been praised for his stance on the need for the people of Abyei to decide their destiny.
He also endorsed the 2013 controversial referendum in which the residents of Abyei – Ngok Dinka – voted 98% to join the world’s youngest nation.
The veteran South Sudanese politician was born in Abyei in February 1946 and studied at Khartoum university’s law faculty before he was arrested and drop from university.
He worked as a Editor at Nile Mirror newspaper before joining the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).
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