History_of_War_43_2017

BRIEFING
members of the population has been displaced
and 1.5 million have fled to neighbouring
countries, particularly Uganda; South Sudan
has the world’s third biggest refugee population
after Syria and Afghanistan. In camps for the
displaced, an estimated 70 per cent of women
have been raped. With famine conditions now
reported in some areas, this new African nation
has had a truly nightmarish infancy marked by
hatred and suffering.
Long road to independence
An old local saying goes: ‘Aktul al-abid bil
abid’ (kill the slave through the slave) and
this illustrates how the seeds of the current
conflict were planted in the long struggle for
independence from the Islamic north. Under
Anglo-Egyptian colonial rule, the Muslim north
and the Christian and Animist south were
ruled as two distinct entities. By 1947 they
were unified, but the south has been badly
neglected; even today, the new nation has very
little infrastructure. Many towns and air strips
become inaccessible in the rainy season. One
in seven children dies before the age of seven.
Promises by the newly independent Sudan
to create a federal system of government were
never honoured. The first civil war broke out in
1955 and ended with the 1972 Addis Ababa
Agreement. Fundamental to the peace was
a promise to grant autonomy for the south.
But such promises were shelved after oil was
discovered near Bentui in the Upper Nile region
in 1978. The American company Chevron
eventually spent $1 billion on exploration and
two large oil fields were established, called
Unity and Heglig respectively.
Around the same time, President Jafaar
Numeiri sought to consolidate his support
among northern Muslims by bringing two
prominent Islamic politicians into government.
The first was Umma Party leader Sadiq al-
Mahdi, great-grandson of the famous Mahdi
who had fought the British during the 19th
century. The second was Hasan al-Turabi,
leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and founder
of the Islamist National Islamic Front (NIF).
In 1983, Numeiri declared an Islamic
revolution, imposing curbs on western
fashions and music. On one occasion, he
publicly poured $11 million worth of alcohol
into the Nile.
A regional government in the south was
dissolved and south Sudan split into three
regions, effectively terminating the 1972
agreement. Mutinies now broke out in army
garrisons in the southern towns of Bor and
Pibor. Many southern troops deserted and
regrouped across the eastern border in
Ethiopia, where they formed the SPLM.
The SPLM was led by Colonel John Garang
de Maboir, a Dinka officer with a doctorate
in agricultural economics from Iowa State
University and military training at Fort Benning
Georgia. But Garang sought not southern
succession but the creation of a secular
socialist regime for all of Sudan.
He found many willing recruits for his military
wing, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army
(SPLA) and remarked that: “The marginal cost
of rebellion in the south became very small,
zero or negative; that is, it pays to rebel.”
This was no glib remark. As with other
African conflicts, foreign powers were quick
to intervene. The Ethiopian Mengistu Haile
Mariam and Libyan Muammar Gaddafi regimes
backed the SPLM in revenge for Khartoum’s
sponsorship of separatist and opposition
groups on their soil. Despite its grim reputation
for human rights violations, Washington poured
aid into Numeiri’s regime to the tune of $1.5
billion as a bulwark against the pro-Soviet
Ethiopian junta and the reviled Gaddafi.
During the 1980s, the Sudanese regime
attempted to boost agricultural production by
investing heavily in mechanization. But the
effort back-fired and the nation accumulated
debts of $12 billion. Drought struck in 1983-
84, causing mass hunger. This hastened the
overthrow of Numeiri in 1986, bringing to power
Sadiq al-Mahdi as prime minister. As the head
of a northern coalition, he was fully committed
to the further ‘Islamisation’ of Sudan.
Not surprisingly, the SPLM refused to enter a
ceasefire. Thus Sadiq’s regime armed Baggara
Arab militias from western Sudan. Known as
murahalin, they were licensed to attack Dinka
and Nuer areas. By this time, Chevron had
ceased its activities at Unity and Heglig. The oil
fields were largely in Dinka and Nuer areas and
the murahalin committed ethnic cleansing in
the territories around them.
The predominantly Dinka SPLM was opposed
by rival factions that acted both independently
and with Khartoum’s support. Among the
Nuer, some factions supported the SPLM and
others opposed it. The consequence of such
internecine warfare was entirely predictable. In
1988, Sudan was wracked by the worst famine
seen in modern times. At least 250,000 people
perished due to starvation and three million
were displaced.
Food was used as a weapon of war. Both
sides attacked cattle herds, destroyed crops
and blocked convoys of foreign aid. When aid
did get through to the south, it was frequently
commandeered by SPLA guerillas. Combined
with the military aid they were already receiving,
the SPLM soon controlled much of the southern
countryside. With the army forced back into
garrison towns, Sadiq was forced to negotiate
with Garang. This was too much for Islamic
hardliners in the north and the Army was
discontent with his handling of the war: a coup
took place on 30 June 1989 that put General
Omar al-Bashir in power.
“IN 1988, SUDAN WAS
WRACKED BY THE WORST
FAMINE IN MODERN TIMES.
AT LEAST 250,000 PEOPLE
PERISHED AND THREE
MILLION WERE DISPLACED”
An SPLA soldier salutes
during celebrations held in
Juba to mark three years of
independence in July 2014
1983
In response to growing
Islamic influence, the South
Sudan Liberation Movement
(SPLM) renews the separatist
struggle led by John Garang.
Ethiopia and Libya provide
military support.
30 June 1989
With famine raging and
the SPLM gaining ground
in the south, General
Omar al-Bashir stages
a coup. Splits form
within the SPLM over the
movement’s objectives.
August 1991
Nuer commander Riek
Machar and others attempt
to seize control of the
SPLM. Thousands of ethnic
Dinka are slaughtered by
Riek’s brutal forces in Bor
that November.
July 2002
Under the terms of the
Machakos Protocol
signed in Keyna, the
South is granted the right
to self-determination.
Riek Machar rejoins the
SPLM.
January 2005
The Comprehensive Peace
Agreement (CPA) is signed,
which allows for a six year
period of autonomy ahead of
a ballot on full independence.
Disputes over the oil-rich
border areas ensue.
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