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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
Various militia groups, supplied and supported by the
government, have served as important adjuncts to the armed forces
in the fighting in the south. Beginning in 1983, when the first
militias were formed under Nimeiri, the government increasingly
relied on the militias to oppose the SPLA. The militias were
given arms and ammunition but usually operated independently of
the army. No reliable data were available on the size of militia
forces, although it has been roughly estimated that 20,000 men
participated in militia activities at one time or another.
The Anya Nya II group, formed among southern mutineers from
the army (after first splitting off from the rebel movement and
obtaining weapons and training from the SPAF), was a major factor
in the war between 1984 and 1987. Predominantly from the Nuer,
the second largest ethnic group in the south, Anya Nya II fought
in rural areas of Aali an Nil on behalf of the government. Anya
Nya II emerged as a significant factor in the war in that
province, disrupting SPLA operations and interfering with the
movement of SPLA recruits to the Ethiopian border area for
training. Anya Nya II units were structured with military ranks
and were based near various army garrisons. The government
assisted the group in establishing a headquarters in Khartoum as
part of regime efforts to promote Anya Nya II as an alternative
southern political movement in opposition to the SPLA.
Eventually, however, SPLA military success led to a decline in
morale within Anya Nya II and induced major units, along with
their commanders, to defect to the SPLA beginning in late 1987.
By mid-1989, only one Anya Nya II faction remained loyal to the
government; it continued its close relations with the government
after the Bashir coup and retained its political base in
Khartoum.
Some of the most devastating raids and acts of banditry
against the civilian population were perpetrated by the militias
known as murahalin, formed among the Rizeiqat, Rufaa al
Huj, Misiriyah, and other groups, all members of the cattleraising Baqqara Arab nomad tribes in Darfur and Kurdufan. These
Arab communities traditionally competed for pasture land with the
Dinka of northern Bahr al Ghazal and southern Kurdufan. Raiding
by the murahalin between 1985 and 1988 precipitated a vast
displacement of Dinka civilians from Bahr al Ghazal. Although
already armed, the murahalin were given arms and
ammunition and some covert training by the SPAF. Some joint
counterinsurgency operations also took place in conjunction with
government forces. According to Amnesty International, the raids
carried out by the murahalin were accompanied by the
deliberate killing of tens of thousands of civilians; the
abduction of women and children, who were forced into slavery;
the looting of cattle and other livestock; and the burning of
houses and grain supplies. By late 1988, the growing presence of
the SPLA reduced the threat of the murahalin against
villages and cattle camps. Moreover, the devastation was so
severe that little was left to plunder. Dinka refugees moving
north to escape famine were still exposed to militia attacks,
however.
The Rizeiqat murahalin were responsible for one of the
worst atrocities of the war when, in retaliation for losses
suffered in an engagement with the SPLA, more than 1,000 unarmed
Dinka were massacred at the rail junction of Ad Duayn, most of
them burned to death. The tactics of the Misiriyah
murahalin were similar to those of the Rizeiqat; their
ambushes of refugees and attacks on villagers in northeastern
Bahr al Ghazal were among the most murderous and destructive of
any perpetrated by the militia groups. The government armed the
Rufaa al Huj as a militia in 1986, after the SPLA appeared in
southern Al Awsat Province to recruit followers among the nonArab peoples of the area. In the early months of 1987, combined
operations by the SPAF and the Rufaa al Huj militia against nonArab populations in retaliation for the SPLA offensive resulted
in many atrocities.
The government also armed as militias a number of southern
non-Arab tribes opposed to the SPLA. In 1985 members of the
Mundari in Al Istiwai, who were hostile to the Dinka because of
their ruthless behavior, were recruited to help counter the
growing SPLA threat in that province. Most of the Mundari
dissociated themselves from the militia, however, as the presence
of the SPLA strengthened in Al Istiwai. In Bahr al Ghazal, the
government formed a militia concentrated around Waw, and
established a training base for it there. Hostile relations with
the Dinka in the area spawned considerable violence, culminating
in massacres in August and September 1987 among Dinka who had
taken refuge in Waw.
In February 1989, Sadiq al Mahdi proposed that the
murahalin militias be institutionalized into popular
defense committees. Although the armed forces apparently went
ahead with the formation of some such committees, the proposals
were strongly opposed by other political groups in Khartoum, who
feared that the murahalin would become a factional
fighting unit loyal to Sadiq al Mahdi's Umma Party.
In October 1989, the Bashir government promulgated the
Popular Defence Act, whose original purpose seemed to be to
proceed with the plan of the previous government to give
legitimacy to the militias as auxiliaries of the SPAF. The
government established a new paramilitary body, the Popular
Defence Forces (PDF), to promote the political objectives of the
government and the NIF. This action did not, however, result in
the disappearance of the existing militias. The PDF was under the
command of a brigadier general of the army, and its recruits were
armed with AK-47 assault rifles. According to the government, the
weapons would be stored in army depots and distributed only when
needed.
Both men and women ostensibly were enrolled on a voluntary
basis, although some coercion was reported. Military officers and
civil servants at all levels were also recruited, particularly
those wishing to demonstrate their loyalty to the Islamic
activist movement. Membership in the PDF was required for
admission to a university and for most significant positions in
northern society.
The original period of training was to be for up to three
months, and refresher training could last up to fifteen days a
year. In June 1990, the government held a graduation for the
second PDF training class, numbering 1,287 persons. According to
the chief of the PDF, more than ten PDF camps would be located in
various parts of the country; each camp would be capable of
training three groups of 5,000 a year. The government's target
was a PDF personnel of 150,000, but independent observers doubted
that this could be achieved with available resources or that the
PDF would assume more than a marginal role in maintaining
internal security.
Data as of June 1991
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