Henry Dilah Odwar, a prominent South Sudanese politician, died early Wednesday in Canada, after a long battle with cancer, his family confirmed. He was in his 70s.
Odwar had been fighting cancer for nine years and passed away in a Kitchener Ontario hospital, where he had been admitted on Monday, a family representative told Radio Tamazuj.
Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
Born in Ikotos County, Eastern Equatoria State, Odwar spent much of his early adult life in Canada. He held a master’s degree in geophysics from the University of Manitoba and lived in Canada from 1984 until after South Sudan’s 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
Odwar entered mainstream politics in 2010 as a member of South Sudan’s National Legislative Assembly, representing Eastern Equatoria. He chaired the parliament’s Committee on Energy and Mining before leaving the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in November 2014 to join the opposition SPLM-IO, led by Dr. Riek Machar.
He later served as the SPLM-IO’s deputy chairman and deputy commander-in-chief before being appointed mining minister in South Sudan’s revitalized unity government in March 2020.
However, he resigned in August 2021, citing health issues and ideological differences, and aligned himself with a breakaway faction led by Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual.
Odwar is survived by four children.