Elijah Malok Aleng
Elijah Malok Aleng (November 28, 1937 – October 30, 2014, Nairobi, Kenya) was a South Sudanese public servant, general, and politician, hailing from the Twic Dinka community in Twic East County, Jonglei State. Born in Thianwong village on November 28, 1937, his family was residing among the Pen people in Angakuei, Baidit, about 20 miles northeast of Bor town, at the time of his birth. Originally from Awulian in Wangulei, Twic East County, his family later migrated back to be with their Awulian kin.
Elijah’s education began at Malek Primary School (1950–1953), followed by Juba Intermediate School and Juba Commercial Senior Secondary School. He continued his studies at Free University of the Congo (now in the Democratic Republic of Congo), before securing a scholarship to pursue higher education at Fribourg Catholic University in Switzerland. There, he earned a Master's degree in Economics in 1972. In 1975, he completed another Master's degree in Development Studies and Economic Planning at Wolfson College, Cambridge, in the United Kingdom.
In his memoir Southern Sudan: Struggle for Liberty, Elijah acknowledged several individuals who had a profound influence on his life and career, including Chief Deng Biar Abit, leader of the Awulian clan, Paul Logali, former finance minister of the Southern Sudan regional government, and Akec Kwai Biar, former Bor District Commissioner and his cousin.
In the next session, presenters focused on abuses committed in connection with the prosecution of the war in the South.
Elijah Malok Aleng contributed a paper entitled Destitution and Displacement in The Sudan. In it, he described the tragedy of civil war and its political underpinnings. During the first civil war of 1955–1972, between 750,000 and 1.5 million Sudanese nationals, of whom a high proportion were civilians, lost their lives.
In 1983 the civil war resumed, and with it, massive violations of civilians' human rights.
Aleng joined a number of human rights groups in asserting that since 1983 these violations have included extrajudicial executions, torture, starvation, the rape and / or enslavement of women and children, the pillaging and destruction of agricultural crops, the use of the civilian population as a human shield during military operations; and the persecution of Christians.
Shari'a or Islamic law was harshly applied to chop off the hands of 90 citizens charged with petty theft who were mostly from the neglected and marginalized regions of South and Western Sudan.
Elijah was elected to the Sudanese regional parliament in May 1982, representing the Bor North constituency as a Member of Parliament (MP).
