Sudan does not have an ambassador to the US at this time. Since Sept. 9, 2008, the head of the embassy has been the chargé d’affaires, Akec Khoc Aciew Khoc. Dr. Khoc, a member of the Dinka people of Southern Sudan, trained as a medical practitioner, earning a bachelor’s degree (M.B. B.S.) from the University of Khartoum Medical School, and a master’s degree in Blood Transfusion Medicine and Hematology from Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris. Khoc fled Sudan to Ethiopia at the outset of the second civil war in 1983, and then to France in 1991 after the political situation in Ethiopia deteriorated for the south Sudanese. While in Paris, he became a member of the Sudan Human Rights Organization, and a spokesman for the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), the leading opposition group to the northern government and the political arm of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. He left Paris and settled for a time in Minnesota, working as a mental health counselor. In April 2006, as part of the national reconciliation process, he was appointed chargé d’affaires to the Sudanese embassy in the US.