Sudan’s Co-Chairperson of the Abyei Joint Oversight Committee has described the resignation of Dr. Luka Biong, his South Sudanese counterpart, as a great loss.

Al-Khair al-Fahim al-Faki, announced in a press statement from Khartoum last Sunday that the Sudanese government is waiting for Juba to nominate Biong’s replacement after his official resignation.

It is reported that South Sudan’s Co-Chair has returned to the US in order to further pursue his academic career.

Al-Khair described his former colleague as one of the sons of Abyei ‘rationalists’, and ‘unlike those who escalate conflict in the region’.  He stressed that Luka advocated for the peaceful coexistence between South Sudan’s groups and Sudan’s pastoralist Misseriya, Reizegat and other neighbouring tribes, regardless of the political differences between the two nations.

The co-Chair went on to claim that Sudan always remained an advocate for peaceful coexistence in order to preserve the rights of both the people of South Sudan and Sudan.

He further praised the level reached by Sudan and South Sudan in implementing the security matrix as a follow-up to last year’s cooperation agreements in Addis Ababa.

Al-Khair noted, “People will soon see the brighter light which will place great pleasure in the nations of the two countries”

Photo: Al-Khair al-Fahim al-Faki, Sudan’s Co-Chairperson of the Abyei Joint Oversight Committee (file)

Related: Abyei Joint Oversight Committee Co-Chair Biong to resign (11 February 2013)