The government in Khartoum started a violent drive against southern rebels led by the Dinkas. Thousands of civilians, including people from Bol's village, Turalei, fled their homes, ending up in refugee camps as far away as Ethiopia. Bol visited the camps and tried to drum up support in America. ''People were in bad shape,'' he recalled. ''You could only look at them one time and not again.''

Bol became an important financial backer of the rebels, the Sudan People's Liberation Army. He paid for their Washington office and for a $1,000-a-month lobbyist, among other things. Bol estimates that in all he spent more than $3.5 million on the rebels.

Bol left the N.B.A. in 1995, and after playing briefly the following year with a team in Italy, he moved to Kampala, Uganda. He invested $150,000 in a business run by a cousin; it, too, went bankrupt. Then the Sudanese government offered a peace settlement. One rebel leader, Riak Machar from the Nuer tribe, agreed to the proposal, but the People's Liberation Army refused. Bol surprised many Sudanese by siding with Machar. In 1997, he suddenly left Kampala and flew to Khartoum.

The leaders of the People's Liberation Army saw Bol's decision as treachery. Bol says he simply believed it was time to stop the civil war. ''I don't like the war,'' he said. ''I used to, but not anymore.''

The government saw Bol's decision to come to Khartoum as a propaganda coup. ''When Manute first came it was all over the papers,'' said Jacob Kauat, a former basketball teammate in Sudan. ''He was always guarded by four bodyguards and you would have to wait for hours to meet him. And I was one of his friends.''

Several people said Bol had been promised a senior position in the government, but it never materialized. Jobless and ignored, Bol started to feel the strain.

He sold a house in Egypt and another in Khartoum. A home in the United States was repossessed after he defaulted on payments. Bol is vague when discussing his finances and how he is getting by without a job.