The
Second Sudanese Civil War started in 1983,
although it was largely a continuation of the
First Sudanese Civil War of 1955 to
1972.
It
took place, for the most part, in southern Sudan
and was one of the longest lasting and deadliest
wars of the later 20th century. Roughly 1.9 million
civilians were killed in southern Sudan
, and more
than 4 million southerners have been forced to flee their homes at
one time or another since the war began. The civilian death
toll is one of the highest of any war since
World War II. The conflict officially ended
with the signing of
a
peace agreement in January 2005.
Background and causes
For more information, see History of Sudan,
1956-1969, History of Sudan,
1969-1985.
The war is usually characterized as a fight between the southern,
non-Arab populations and the northern,
Arab-dominated government. Kingdoms and great powers
based along the Nile river have fought against the people of inland
Sudan for centuries. Since at least the 17th century, central
governments have attempted to regulate and exploit the cattle
herders of southern and inland Sudan.
When the British ran Sudan as a colony they administered the
northern and southern provinces separately.
The south was held to
be more similar to the other east-African colonies —
Kenya
, Tanganyika, and Uganda — while northern Sudan was more similar to
Arabic-speaking Egypt
.
Northerners were prevented from holding positions of power in the
south, and trade was discouraged between the two areas.
However, in 1946 the British gave in to northern pressure to
integrate the two areas. Arabic was made the language of
administration in the south, and northerners began to hold
positions there. The southern elite, trained in
English, resented the change as they were
kept out of their own government.
After decolonization, most power was given to the
northern elites based in Khartoum
, causing
unrest in the south.
In 1955, southern resentment of northern
Muslim Arab domination culminated in a mutiny among
southern troops in
Equatoria
Province. These troops were upset that the Khartoum government
had failed to deliver on its promises to Britain that it would
create a
federal system. For the next 17
years, the southern region experienced civil strife, and various
southern leaders agitated for regional
autonomy or outright
secession.
Another factor in the second war was the natural resources of
Sudan, particularly in the south, where there are significant
oil fields. Oil revenues make up about 70%
of Sudan's export earnings. Due to numerous tributaries of the
Nile river and heavier
precipitation in southern Sudan,
the south also has greater access to water, and is therefore much
more fertile. The north of the country is on the edge of the
Sahara desert. The northern desire to control
these resources, and the southern desire to maintain control of
them, contributed to the war. A parallel war between the
Nuer and
Dinka also raged in the
south.
Outbreak
This chronic state of insurgency against the central government was
suspended in 1972 after the signing of the
Addis Ababa Accords granting southern
Sudan wide regional autonomy on internal matters. In 1983, as part
of an
Islamicization campaign
President
Nimeiry declared his
intention to transform Sudan into a Muslim Arab state, divided the
south into three regions and instituted
Shari’a law. This was controversial even among Muslim
groups. After questioning Nimeiry's credentials to Islamicize
Sudan's society,
Ansar leader
Sadiq al-Mahdi was placed under
house arrest.
On 26 April 1983, President Nimeiry declared a
state of emergency, in part to ensure
that Shari’a was applied more broadly. Most constitutionally
guaranteed rights were suspended. In the north, emergency courts,
later known as "decisive justice courts", were established, with
summary jurisdiction over criminal cases. Amputations for theft and
public lashings for alcohol possession were common during the state
of emergency. Southerners and other non-Muslims living in the north
were also subjected to these punishments. These events, and other
longstanding grievances, in part led to a resumption of the civil
war.
The
Sudan People's
Liberation Army (SPLA) was founded in 1983 as a southern-based
mainly non-Arabic rebel group, fighting against the central
government and attempting to establish an independent Southern
Sudan under its leadership. Its leader was
John Garang.
In September 1984, President Nimeiry announced the end of the state
of emergency and dismantled the emergency courts but soon
promulgated a new judiciary act, which continued many of the
practices of the emergency courts. Despite Nimeiry's public
assurances that the rights of non-Muslims would be respected,
southerners and other non-Muslims remained deeply suspicious.
Arms Suppliers
Sudan relied on a variety of countries for its arms supplies.
Following independence, the army was trained and supplied by the
British.
However, after the 1967 Six-Day War, relations were cut off, as were
relations with the United
States
and West
Germany
.
From 1968
to 1972, the Soviet
Union
and COMECON nations sold
large numbers of weapons and provided technical assistance and
training to Sudan. At this time the army grew from a
strength of 18,000 to roughly 50,000 men. Large numbers of
tanks, aircraft, and artillery were acquired, and they
dominated the army until the late 1980s.
Relations cooled between the two sides after the
coup in 1972, and the Khartoum government sought to
diversify its suppliers. The Soviet Union continued to supply
weapons until 1977, when their support of
Marxist elements in Ethiopia angered the Sudanese
sufficiently to cancel their deals.
The People's Republic of China
was the main supplier in the late
1970s.
Egypt was the most important military partner in the 1970s,
providing
missiles, personnel carriers, and
other military hardware. At the same time military cooperation
between the two countries was important.
U.S.-aligned countries resumed supplying Sudan in the mid-1970s.
The United
States began selling Sudan a great deal of equipment around 1976,
hoping to counteract Soviet support of Marxist Ethiopians and
Libyans
. Military sales peaked in 1982 at
US$101 million. After the start of the
second civil war, American assistance dropped, and was eventually
cancelled in 1987.
1985-1991
- For more information, see Transitional Military Council,
Sadiq
Al Mahdi and Coalition Governments
Early 1985 saw serious shortages of fuel and bread in Khartoum, a
growing insurgency in the south,
drought and
famine, and an increasingly difficult refugee
burden. In early April, during Nimeiry's absence from the country,
massive demonstrations, first triggered by price increases on bread
and other staples, broke out in Khartoum.
On
6 April, senior military officers led by
Gen.
Abdul Rahman Suwar
ad-Dahhab mounted a coup. Among the first acts of the new
government was to suspend the 1983 constitution, rescind the decree
declaring Sudan's intent to become an Islamic state, and disband
Nimeiry's
Sudan Socialist
Union. However, the "September laws" instituting Shari’a law
were not suspended. A 15-member transitional military council was
named, chaired by Gen. Suwar ad-Dahhab. In consultation with an
informal conference of political parties, unions, and professional
organizations known as the "Gathering", the council appointed an
interim civilian cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Dr.
Al-Jazuli Daf'allah.
Elections were held in April 1986, and a transitional military
council turned over power to a civilian government as promised. The
government, headed by Prime Minister
Sadiq al-Mahdi of the
Umma Party, consisted of a coalition of the Umma,
the
Democratic
Unionist Party (DUP) (formerly the National Unionist Party,
NUP), the
National Islamic
Front (
Hassan al-Turabi’s NIF)
and several southern parties. This coalition dissolved and reformed
several times over the next few years, with
Sadiq al-Mahdi and his Umma party always in a
central role.
In May 1986, the Sadiq al-Mahdi government began peace negotiations
with the
Sudan People's
Liberation Army (SPLA), led by Col.
John
Garang. In that year the SPLA and a number of Sudanese
political parties met in Ethiopia and agreed to the "
Koka Dam" declaration, which called for abolishing
Islamic law and convening a constitutional conference.
In 1988, the SPLA and
the DUP agreed on a peace plan calling for the abolition of
military pacts with Egypt and Libya, freezing of
Islamic law, an end to the state of emergency, and a
cease-fire. A constitutional conference would then be
convened.
During this period, the civil war intensified in lethality and the
economy continued to deteriorate. When prices of basic goods were
increased in 1988, riots ensued, and the price increases were
cancelled. When Sadiq al-Mahdi Rya refused to approve a peace plan
reached by the DUP and the SPLA in November 1988, the DUP left the
government. The new government consisted essentially of the Umma
and the Islamic fundamentalist NIF.
In February 1989, the army presented Sadiq with an ultimatum: he
could move toward peace or be thrown out. He formed a new
government with the DUP and approved the SPLA/DUP agreement. A
constitutional conference was tentatively planned for September
1989.
On 30 June 1989, however, military officers under then-Col.
Omar Hassan al-Bashir, with
NIF instigation and support, replaced the government with the
Revolutionary
Command Council for National Salvation (RCC), a
junta of 15 military officers (reduced to 12
in 1991) assisted by a civilian cabinet. General al-Bashir became
president and chief of state, prime minister and chief of the armed
forces.
The new military government banned
trade
unions, political parties, and other "non-religious"
institutions. 78,000 members of the army, police, and civil
administration were purged in order to reshape the
government.
In March 1991, a new penal code, the
Criminal Act of 1991, instituted harsh
punishments nationwide, including amputations and stoning. Although
the southern states are officially exempt from these Islamic
prohibitions and penalties, the 1991 act provides for a possible
future application of Islamic Law (Shari’a) in the south. In 1993,
the government transferred all non-Muslim judges from the south to
the north, replacing them with Muslim judges. The introduction of
Public Order Police to enforce
Shari’a law resulted in the arrest and treatment under Shari’a law
of southerners and other non-Muslims living in the north.
Conduct of the war: 1991-2001
It is estimated that as many as 200,000 Southern Sudanese and Nuba
children and women have been taken into slavery—mainly to North
Sudan—during raids perpetrated in Southern Sudanese towns and
villages. On the pretext of fighting Southern Sudanese rebels, the
National Islamic government of the Sudan (GOS) has deployed its
regular armed forces and notorious militia (known as the People's
Defense Forces, PDF) to attack and raid villages in the South and
the Nuba Mountains for slaves and cattle.
The SPLA
was in control of large areas of Equatoria, Bahr al Ghazal, and Upper
Nile
provinces and also operates in the southern
portions of Darfur
, Kordofan, and Blue Nile
provinces. The government controlled a number of the
major southern towns and cities, including Juba
, Wau
, and Malakal
. An informal cease-fire in May broke down in
October 1989.
In August 1991, internal dissension among the rebels led opponents
of Colonel Garang's leadership of the SPLA to form the so-called
Nasir faction of the rebel army. The
attempt to overthrow Garang was led by
Riek
Machar and
Lam Akol.
Osama bin Laden and his
Al Qaeda organization moved to Sudan in 1991. Osama
brought some wealth to Sudan while he directed some of his first
terrorist attacks out of Sudan.
In September 1992,
William Nyuon
Bany formed a second rebel faction, and in February 1993,
Kerubino Kwanyin Bol formed a
third rebel faction.
On 5 April 1993, the three dissident rebel
factions announced a coalition of their groups called SPLA United at a press conference in Nairobi
, Kenya.
After 1991, the factions clashed occasionally and thus, the rebels
lost much of their credibility with the West.
In 1990-91 the Sudanese government supported
Saddam Hussein in the
Gulf War. This changed American attitudes toward
the country.
Bill Clinton's
administration prohibited American investment in the country and
supplied money to neighbouring countries to repel Sudanese
incursions. The US also began attempts to "isolate" Sudan and began
referring to it as a rogue state.
Since
1993, the leaders of Eritrea
, Ethiopia
, Uganda, and Kenya have pursued
a peace initiative for the Sudan under the auspices of the Intergovernmental
Authority on Development (IGAD), but results have been
mixed. Despite that record, the IGAD initiative promulgated
the 1994
Declaration of
Principles (DOP) that aimed to identify the essential elements
necessary to a just and comprehensive peace settlement; i.e., the
relationship between religion and the state, power-sharing,
wealth-sharing, and the right of self-determination for the south.
The Sudanese Government did not sign the DOP until 1997 after major
battle field losses to the SPLA.
In 1994
In 1995, a coalition of internal and exiled opposition parties in
the north and the south created the
National Democratic
Alliance as an anti-government umbrella group. This development
opened a northeastern front to the civil war, making it more than
before a center-periphery rather than simply a north-south
conflict. The SPLA, DUP, and Umma Parties were the key groups
forming the NDA, along with several smaller parties and northern
ethnic groups.
In 1996,
Osama bin Laden was expelled from Sudan, and he moved his
organization to Afghanistan
.
Also in 1997, the government signed a series of agreements with
rebel factions, led by former Garang Lieutenant
Riek Machar, under the banner of "
Peace from Within".
These included the
Khartoum, Nuba
Mountains
, and
Fashoda
agreements that ended military conflict between the
government and significant rebel factions. Many of those
leaders then moved to Khartoum where they assumed marginal roles in
the central government, or collaborated with the government in
military engagements against the SPLA. These three agreements
paralleled the terms and conditions of the IGAD agreement, calling
for a degree of autonomy for the south and the right of
self-determination.
In July 2000, the Libyan/Egyptian
Joint Initiative on the Sudan
was mooted, calling for the establishment of an interim government,
powersharing, constitutional reform, and new elections. Southern
critics objected to the joint initiative because it neglected to
address issues of the relationship between religion and the state
and failed to mention the right of self-determination. It is
unclear to what extent this initiative will have a significant
impact on the search for peace, as some critics view it as more
aimed at a resolution among northern political parties and
protecting the perceived security interests of Egypt in favour of
the unity of the Sudan.
Foreign interventions
In September 2001, former
U.S.
Senator John Danforth was designated Presidential
Envoy for Peace in the Sudan. His role is to explore the prospects
that the US could play a useful catalytic role in the search for a
just end to the civil war, and enhance humanitarian services
delivery that can help reduce the suffering of the Sudanese people
stemming from war related effects.
Following an internal outcry, the Sadiq al-Mahdi government in
March 1989 agreed with the
United
Nations and donor nations (including the US) on a plan called
Operation Lifeline Sudan
(OLS), under which some 100,000 tons of food was moved into both
government and SPLA-held areas of the Sudan, and widespread
starvation was averted. Phase II of OLS to cover 1990 was approved
by both the government and the SPLA in March 1990. In 1991, Sudan
faced a 2-year drought and
food
shortage across the entire country. The US, UN, and other
donors attempted to mount a coordinated international relief effort
in both north and south Sudan to prevent a catastrophe.
However,
due to Sudan's human rights abuses and
its pro-Iraqi
stance
during the Gulf War, many donors cut much of their aid to the
Sudan. In a similar drought in 2000-01, the international
community again responded to avert mass starvation in the Sudan.
International donors continue to provide large amounts of
humanitarian aid to all parts of the Sudan.
The US government's
Sudan Peace Act
of 21 October 2002 accused Sudan of
genocide for killing more than 2 million civilians
in the south during the civil war since 1983.
Peace talks between the southern rebels and the government made
substantial progress in 2003 and early 2004, although skirmishes in
parts of the south have reportedly continued. The two sides have
agreed that, following a final peace treaty, southern Sudan will
enjoy autonomy for six years, and after the expiration of that
period, the people of southern Sudan will be able to vote in a
referendum on independence. Furthermore,
oil revenues will be divided equally between the government and
rebels during the six-year interim period. The ability or
willingness of the government to fulfill these promises has been
questioned by some observers, however, and the status of three
central and eastern provinces was a point of contention in the
negotiations. Some observers wondered whether hard line elements in
the north would allow the treaty to proceed.
A
Comprehensive Peace
Agreement was signed on 9 January 2005 in Nairobi. The terms of
the peace treaty are as follows:
- The south will have autonomy for six years, followed by a
referendum on secession.
- Both sides of the conflict will merge their armed forces into a 39,000-strong force after
six years, if the secession referendum should turn out
negative.
- Income from oilfields is to be shared 50 to 50.
- Jobs
are to be split according to varying ratios (central
administration: 70 to 30, Abyei
/Blue Nile
State
/Nuba
Mountains: 55 to 45,
both in favour of the government).
- Islamic law is to remain in the north, while continued use of
the sharia in the south is to be decided by
the elected assembly.
Social effects
The ongoing civil war has displaced more than 4 million
southerners.
Some fled into southern cities, such as
Juba; others
trekked as far north as Khartoum and even into Ethiopia, Kenya,
Uganda, Egypt, and other neighboring countries. These people
were unable to grow food or earn money to feed themselves, and
malnutrition and
starvation became
widespread (
see also 1998 Sudan
famine). Approximately 500,000 Sudanese are believed to
have fled Sudan.
The lack of
investment in the south
resulted as well in what international humanitarian organizations
call a "lost generation" who lack educational opportunities, access
to basic health care services, and low prospects for productive
employment in the small and weak economies of the south or the
north.
The agreement reached to end this war in 2005 has also played a
role in the build-up to the
Darfur
conflict.
See also
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