The African Leadership Institute is aware of the arrest of Peter Biar Ajak, a member of the 2016 cohort. Once legal proceedings have been completed, the Fellowship’s Ethics Committee will review his status as a Fellow.

Peter was one of at least 20,000 children who were dubbed the "lost boys" of Sudan after they were separated from their families during the country's second civil war, which ended in 2005. While many were displaced to refugee camps across East Africa, some were resettled in the United States in the early 2000s, including him. He went on to study at Harvard and at Cambridge, where he obtained a PhD in Politics and International Studies before returning to South Sudan to help rebuild the country. He has been an activist for democratic change in South Sudan for decades and was the coordinator of South Sudan Young Leaders Forum; a Senior Adviser for the International Growth Centre; and a Founder of the Juba-based Centre for Strategic Analyses and Research. He was also instrumental to the development of the South Sudan Development Plan; the South Sudan Growth Strategy; and South Sudan Vision 2040, among others.

In 2018, he was arrested by South Sudan’s security police for criticizing the government and detained for two years. Salva Kiir Mayardit assumed power in South Sudan in 2005 and was appointed President 2011. Since then, Kiir has remained in office without allowing democratic elections, and political opposition faces restrictions along with press freedom.

Peter fled to the U.S. with the help of the American government four years ago after he said South Sudan’s president ordered him abducted or killed. Emergency visas were issued at the time to Ajak, now 40, and his family after they spent weeks in hiding in Kenya.