Elijah Malok Aleng, former governor of the Central Bank of South Sudan, has died in a hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, aged 77.
Aleng was born on 28 November 1937 in Thiangwong, a village about five miles East of Baaidit in Central Bor among the Angakuei clan. He was a relative of late John Garang de Mabior, founding leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).
Aleng grew up with his maternal uncle, Akech Kwai, where he attended Rialbek Bush School. He later attended Malek Primary School, Juba Intermediate School and Juba Commercial Senior Secondary School.
He pursued higher education later at the Free University of Congo, Fribourg Catholic University in Switzerland, and Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.
He was elected a Member of Parliament (MP) representing Bor North constituency in the regional parliament of Sudan in May 1982, but joined the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in late 1983.
During the 1980s he served in various roles in SPLM/A including as a political commissar, as second in command on the Blue Nile front, as commander of the Eagle Battalion, and as a special envoy in West Africa.
His later roles during the 1990s included supervision of the SPLM/A’s humanitarian wing, coordinating the first SPLM/A National Convention at Chukudum, and advising the SPLM/A chairman on political, financial and economic issues.
Aleng also serves as secretary of the SPLM at the peace talks that led to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, after which he was appointed Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sudan (CBOS) and President of the Bank of Southern Sudan (BOSS).
He oversaw the launching of South Sudan’s own national currency. He was relieved from the governorship of the central bank in August 2011.
Aleng was married with children.