Sudan

Alex de Waal has worked as a programme director at the Social Science Research Council. He has been a director of Justice Africa in London and served as an advisor to the African Union mediation team in Abuja.

Dr Anne Itto was a member of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) delegation to the Naivasha talks. She has taught at the University of Juba and served as the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry in the Government of National Unity from 2005–2011. Dr Itto was also the Secretary General for the southern sector of the SPLM, and was nominated to the National Assembly in 2005. She became chairperson for the Political Committee of the Joint National Transitional Team, one of the specialised bodies created by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005. Before her involvement in the peace negotiations, she chaired the Natural Resource Management and Utilisation Committee and was an advisor to the SPLM Economic Commission on Agriculture and Natural Resources Development.

As-Sadiq Al-Mahdi is Imam of the Islamic Ansar sect and has been Chairman of the Umma Party since 1964. He served as elected Prime Minister of Sudan 1966-67 and again 1986-89, when he was ousted in a bloodless military coup.

Professor Atta el-Battahani teaches at the Department of Political Science at the University of Khartoum. 

Professor Cirino Hiteng Ofuho is Deputy Minister at the Government of Southern Sudan’s Ministry for Regional Cooperation and was a member of the SPLM’s negotiation team during the last four years of the IGAD peace process.

Daniel Awet Akot is Governor of Lakes State and was previously Minister of Interior for the Government of Southern Sudan.

Dr Hassan Abdel Ati is a former professor of Development Studies at the University of Khartoum. He is director of EDGE for Consultancy & Research, a civil society activist and coordinator of the National Civic Forum, a platform for political dialogue and peace.

Jason Matus has been working in southern Sudan since 1994. He was an observer for the US Government at the Three Areas peace talks and participated in the Joint Assessment Mission for the Three Areas. He continues to be involved in southern Sudan as an advisor to USAID.

Jostein Tellnes was a research assistant at PRIO (International Peace Research Institute, Oslo). He is now working for the Office of the Auditor General of Norway.

Julian Thomas Hottinger works with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. He is a highly experienced mediator and has provided expert technical assistance to peace negotiations in conflict situations including Sudan, Indonesia and Uganda. He holds a PhD in Political Science and specialised as an International Conflict Mediator at the Canadian International Institute for Applied Negotiations [CIIAN] in Ottawa, Canada.

Laurie Nathan was a member of the African Union mediation team that produced the Darfur Peace Agreement.

General Lazaro Sumbeiywo served as Kenya’s Special Envoy to the IGAD-led Sudanese peace process (1997-98) and then as mediator (2001-05). From 2000 he served as Chief of Staff of the Kenyan army before retiring in February 2003 and devoting himself full-time to completing the peace process.

Dr Mona Ayoub teaches local government and public administration at the University of Khartoum.

Long-time legal adviser to former South African President Nelson Mandela, Fink Haysom has extensive direct experience of mediation and facilitation in a number of peace processes. He was appointed to lead the UN team helping Iraq to write its new Constitution and from 2002 has worked under General Sumbeiywo on the IGAD peace process.

Dr Omer Egemi works for the United Nations Development Programme in Khartoum and has published widely on resource-based conflict.

Paul Murphy has worked in Sudan from 1989 and more recently for the agency Pact (2002-05) where he headed the Sudan Peace Fund and other peacebuilding programmes under Pact’s coordination.

Dr Taj es-Sir Mahjoub is a former government minister who was head of the Government of Sudan’s wealth-sharing committee in the Naivasha peace talks and is now co-chairman of the Joint National Transition Team and Secretary-General of the National Council for Strategic Planning.

Tania Kaiser is a lecturer in Refugee Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Her research is currently focused on long-term Sudanese refugees living in Uganda.