Pagan Amum

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Pa’gan Amum Okiech, born on 3 January 1959 in Wat, South Sudan, is a South Sudanese politician. He co-founded South Sudan Reborn, a group that aims to bring peace to the country, and he leads the SPLM-FD, a faction of former detainees.

Early life and education
- He grew up in a relatively wealthy family. His father was a local leader and police officer who later became a chief and president of the court; the family moved to Malakal after his grandfather’s death.
- His mother named him Pa’gan, meaning “incredible” in the Shilluk language.
- He studied at the University of Khartoum in the late 1970s but left law school in 1982 to help form a revolutionary movement that joined with other groups to create the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) led by John Garang.

Political career and peace work
- In 2005, Pa’gan Amum helped negotiate the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended the Sudanese civil war and paved the way for a 2011 referendum.
- After the referendum, he served as Secretary General of the SPLM and was South Sudan’s Chief Negotiator with Sudan on post-independence issues.
- He was the Minister for Peace and CPA Implementation in the Government of Southern Sudan and, after independence in 2011, the caretaker Minister of Peace starting 23 July 2011.
- In 2011–2012 he led negotiations with Sudan over oil revenues. In January 2012, Sudan seized South Sudan’s oil shipments, and South Sudan threatened to shut down oil production. An emergency summit led to a deal, but Amum refused to sign it.

Civil war, detention, and return to leadership
- South Sudan plunged into civil war in 2013. Amum was placed under house arrest and suspended from official duties on 23 July 2013.
- A treason trial began in March 2014 but was overturned in April.
- He says he survived several assassination attempts during this period.
- In 2015, the detainees were returned to Juba from exile in Kenya, and Amum was reinstated as secretary general. He signed the 2015 peace agreement in Addis Ababa between the government and the opposition.

Exile and later years
- Due to ongoing security concerns, Amum has been living in exile in the United States, currently in Denver, Colorado.
- In 2017, he obtained a restraining order against Amira Ali and sued her for slander after she posted videos on Facebook accusing him of murder and rape.