Widow of former Sudanese vice president will speak at Iowa State

01-31-06

Contacts:

Pat Miller, Lectures, (515) 294-9935

Dan Kuester, News Service, (515) 294-0704

Widow of former Sudanese vice president will speak at Iowa State

AMES, Iowa -- Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior, widow of John Garang de Mabior, and Pagan Amum, diplomatic affairs advisor to the president of Southern Sudan, will discuss the current political situation in Sudan at 5 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 4, in the Sun Room, Memorial Union. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Nyandeng de Mabior is Sudan's minister of transportation and roads. Her late husband, John Garang, was a rebel general who founded the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement. In 2005, Garang became vice president of Sudan. He died in a helicopter crash last August, three weeks after taking office. Garang received his doctorate in economics from Iowa State in 1981.

In their talk at Iowa State, Nyandeng de Mabior and Amum will discuss implementation of the peace agreement in Sudan and the conflict in the Darfur region.

The lecture is sponsored by Iowa State's South Sudanese Student Association.

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