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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
Under the terms of the 1972 peace settlement, most of the
Anya Nya fighters were absorbed into the national army, although
a number of units unhappy with the agreement defected and went
into the bush or took refuge in Ethiopia. Angry over Sudan's
support for Eritrean dissidents, Ethiopia began to provide help
to Sudan's independent rebel bands. The rebel forces gathered
more recruits among the Dinka and Nuer people, the largest groups
in the south, and eventually adopted the name of Anya Nya II.
Those original Anya Nya who had been absorbed into the army
after the 1972 peace accord were called upon to keep the
guerrillas in check and at first fought vigorously on behalf of
the national government. But when in 1983 Nimeiri adopted
policies of redividing the south and imposing Islamic law, the
loyalty of southern soldiers began to waver. Uncertain of their
dependability, Nimeiri introduced more northern troops into the
south and attempted to transfer the ex-guerrillas to the north.
In February 1983, army units in Bor, Pibor Post, and Pochala
mutinied. Desertions and mutinies in other southern garrisons
soon followed.
In mid-1983 representatives of Anya Nya II and of the
mutinous army units meeting in Ethiopia formed the Sudanese
People's Liberation Army (SPLA). John Garang, a Dinka Sudanese,
was named its commander and also head of the political wing, the
Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). The southern forces
in rebellion failed to achieve full unity under Garang, and, in a
struggle for power, the dissident units composed of elements of
Anya Nya II were routed by Garang's forces. The defeated
remnants, still calling themselves Anya Nya II, began to
cooperate with the national army against the SPLA.
Still scarcely an effective fighting force, the SPLA relied
at first on ambushes of military vehicles and assaults on police
stations and small army posts, mainly in the Nuer and Dinka areas
of Aali an Nil Province and northern and eastern Bahr al Ghazal
Province. An SPLA attempt to invade eastern Al Istiwai in early
1985 was met with stiff resistance by the army and government
militias. But by 1986 the SPLA was strong enough to hold the
important town of Rumbek in southern Bahr al Ghazal for several
months and was also able to press an attack against Waw, the
provincial capital. During 1987, the SPLA took Pibor Post and
Tonga in Aali an Nil, and by the beginning of 1988, it had
captured a number of towns on the Ethiopian border and near the
White Nile. Advancing northward into Al Awsat Province, it held
Kurmuk and Qaysan for a time in late 1987.
The SPLA was opposed by many communities in Al Istiwai
Province where the Dinka and Nuer were not popular. The national
army was assisted by a militia of the Mundari people, but the
SPLA was gradually able to consolidate its position in eastern Al
Istiwai. By 1988 the SPLA controlled the countryside around Juba,
the major southern city, besieging at least 10,000 government
troops, who were virtually cut off from supplies except for what
could be delivered by air. During a general offensive in early
1989, the SPLA captured Torit and other strategic towns of
eastern Al Istiwai. From May to October 1989, an informal truce
prevailed. After the conflict resumed, the areas being contested
were principally in western and central Al Istiwai, focusing on
the government garrisons at Juba and Yei
(see
fig. 8). The
fighting often consisted of ambushes by the more lightly armed
but mobile guerrillas against government convoys moving supplies
from the north. With captured weapons and arms imported from
Ethiopia and other African countries, the SPLA was increasingly
capable of conducting orthodox warfare employing artillery and
even armored vehicles, although its forces still avoided
conventional engagements against government units.
Figure 8. The Civil War in Southern Sudan, Spring 1991
Anya Nya II began to crumble in 1987, many units and their
commanders deserting to the SPLA. But since 1985, the government
had been encouraging the formation of militia forces in areas
where opposition to the Dinka- and Nuer-dominated SPLA was
strongest. These militias were soon playing a major role in the
fighting and were partly responsible for the ravages that the
civilian population has been forced to endure. The arming of
tribal groups inflamed existing intercommunal conflicts and
resulted in the deliberate killing of tens of thousands of
noncombatants and a vast displacement of civilians.
Millions of villagers were forced from their homes as a
consequence of the fighting and the depredations of militias, the
SPLA, and Anya Nya II. Devastation of northern Bahr al Ghazal by
the roving murahalin (Arab militias) forced large numbers
of destitute people to evacuate the war zone in 1986 and 1987,
many of them making their way to northern Sudan to escape
starvation. Raiding decreased in 1988 and diminished further in
1989 as a result of depopulation of the land and a stronger SPLA
presence in northern Bahr al Ghazal. Nevertheless, the migrations
continued because of the severe food shortage. Almost 1 million
southerners were believed to have reached Khartoum in 1989, and
hundreds of thousands had appeared in other towns and cities.
About 350,000 Sudanese refugees were registered in Ethiopia in
1989, at least 100,000 were in Juba, and 28,000 crossed into
Uganda to escape the fighting in southern Al Istiwai.
Data as of June 1991
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