Ordained to the priesthood at 22 and appointed a bishop at 33, Cardinal Wako had governed the archdiocese since 1981.
Created a cardinal in 2003, he took part in the conclaves that elected Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.
Cardinal Wako’s successor is Archbishop Michael Didi Adgum Mangoria, 57, a convert from an indigenous religion who was baptized at the age of 16.
The prelate was ordained to the priesthood in 1992 and to the episcopate in 2010. He governed the Diocese of El Obeid until 2015, when Pope Francis appointed him coadjutor archbishop of Khartoum.