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The First Sudanese Civil War (also known as the
Anyanya The Anyanya (also Anya-Nya) were a southern Sudanese separatist rebel army formed during the First Sudanese Civil War (1955–1972). A separate movement that rose during the Second Sudanese Civil War were, in turn, called Anyanya II. ''Anyanya'' ...
Rebellion or Anyanya I, after the name of the rebels, a term in the
Madi Madi may refer to: Places * Madi, Chitwan, a municipality in Chitwan District in Nepal * Madi Municipality, Sankhuwasabha, a municipality in Sankhuwasabha District in Nepal * Madi Rural Municipality, Rolpa, a rural municipality in Rolpa Distric ...
language which means 'snake venom') was a conflict from 1955 to 1972 between the northern part of
Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
and the southern Sudan region that demanded representation and more regional autonomy. Half a million people died over the 17 years and the war was divided into four major stages: initial guerrilla warfare, the creation of the
Anyanya The Anyanya (also Anya-Nya) were a southern Sudanese separatist rebel army formed during the First Sudanese Civil War (1955–1972). A separate movement that rose during the Second Sudanese Civil War were, in turn, called Anyanya II. ''Anyanya'' ...
insurgency, political strife within the government and establishment of the South Sudan Liberation Movement. Although the peace agreement ended the First Sudanese Civil War's fighting in 1972, it failed to completely dispel the tensions and addressed only some of the issues stated by Southern Sudan. The breakdown of the initial appeasement later led to a reigniting of the north–south conflict during the Second Sudanese Civil War, which lasted from 1983 to 2005.


Background


Colonial era

Until 1956, the
British government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_est ...
, in cooperation with the Egyptian government (under a
condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
governing arrangement) administered Southern Sudan and Northern Sudan as separate regions under international sovereignty. At the time, the two areas were merged into a single administrative region after political pressure from the Northern elites. This act was taken without consultation with minority southern leaders, who feared being subsumed by the political power of the Northern elites in the colonial political structure. Additionally, the British colonial administration favored the Northern elites during the process of decolonization, granting them a majority of political power during the transition to independence. After becoming independent from colonial rule in 1956, the ethnic and domestic tensions against Southern Sudan further escalated during the post colonial reconstruction. There were national concerns of political inequalities, economic development and insufficient institutions that remained hidden to the international community but ravaged Sudan internally. Also, the northern government superseded the jurisdiction of Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) by committing discriminatory violence against the southern minorities under the guise of internal turmoil of democratic growth.


Perspective


The North

Prior to the outbreak of the civil war, the elites of Northern Sudan had two unwavering interpretations of what led to its outbreak. Many attributed such hostilities to be the remnant of the South's grievances against the British colonial administration, while others viewed it to be the Southern insurgents' attempt in challenging their ruling government. Therefore, the traditional northern elites did not acknowledge the voiced resentment and rising insurgency to have been attributed to their own governance. On the contrary, the ruling class rigidly associated the conflict's persistence to be a rationalization of the South's integration of Christianity and modernity.


The South

Contrarily, the Southern populace viewed the emergence of the civil war to be an inevitability. Following the emancipation of the region of Sudan, the Southern elites were powerless within the realms of politics and the established government. The Southern politicians were incapable of addressing the injustice against their populace because of the minimal influence and support they had within the government in Khartoum. They were not only subjected to severe animosity as an ethnic minority but also as a religious minority within the state. Since the establishment of British colonial rule, the Southern Sudanese were introduced and integrated to the principles of Western thought. Although there were no notable advancements such as political equality and industrialization within their region, they interpreted the concepts from Christianity and the Western ideals by merging them into their own culture. Therefore, in addition to their limited representation in politics, the coercion by the Northern government and the cultural restriction in achieving progress were critical factors towards to onslaught of the war.


Course of the war


Uprising

On 18 August 1955, members of the No. 2 Company, Equatoria Corps, of the British-administered
Sudan Defence Force The Sudan Defence Force (SDF) was a locally recruited British-led force formed in 1925 to assist the police in the event of civil unrest, and to maintain the borders of British administered Sudan. During the Second World War, it also served be ...
mutinied in Torit, and in the following days in Juba, Yei, and
Maridi Maridi is a town in South Sudan. Location Maridi is located in Maridi County, Western Equatoria State, near the international border between South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This location lies approximately , by road, west o ...
. The immediate causes of the mutiny were a trial of a southern member of the national assembly and an allegedly false telegram urging northern administrators in the South to oppress Southerners. The mutinies were suppressed with the dispatch of numerous troops from the north, though survivors fled the towns and began an uncoordinated
insurgency An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irr ...
in rural areas. Poorly armed and unorganized, they were little threat to the outgoing colonial power or the newly formed Sudanese government. O'Ballance, writing in 1977, says that the 'period from 1955 to 1963 was simply one of guerilla survival, scarcely removed from banditry, and that it was successful due to a score or so of former southern army officers and warrant officers, and a small number of non-commissioned officers.'


Escalation of military intervention

The insurgents gradually developed into a secessionist movement composed of the 1955 mutineers and southern students. These groups formed the ''
Anyanya The Anyanya (also Anya-Nya) were a southern Sudanese separatist rebel army formed during the First Sudanese Civil War (1955–1972). A separate movement that rose during the Second Sudanese Civil War were, in turn, called Anyanya II. ''Anyanya'' ...
'' guerrilla army. (Anyanya is also known as ''Anyanya 1'' in comparison to Anyanya 2, which began with the 1974 mutiny of the military garrison in Akobo.) Starting from
Equatoria Equatoria is a region of southern South Sudan, along the upper reaches of the White Nile. Originally a province of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, it also contained most of northern parts of present-day Uganda, including Lake Albert and West Nile. It ...
, between 1963 and 1969, Anyanya spread throughout the other two southern provinces: Upper Nile and Bahr al Ghazal *and provided heavy pressure on the Northern army's ability to properly maneuver. However, the separatist movement was crippled by internal ethnic divisions between the "Nilotic" and "Equatorian" groups. O'Ballance writes that one of the Sudanese army's four infantry brigades had been stationed in
Equatoria Province Equatoria is a region of southern South Sudan, along the upper reaches of the White Nile. Originally a province of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, it also contained most of northern parts of present-day Uganda, including Lake Albert and West Nile. I ...
since 1955, being periodically reinforced as required. However, the government was unable to take advantage of the rebel's weaknesses because of their own factionalism and instability. The first independent government of Sudan, led by Prime Minister
Ismail al-Azhari Ismail al-Azhari (October 20, 1900 – August 26, 1969) ( ar, إسماعيل الأزهري) was a Sudanese nationalist and political figure. He served as the first Prime Minister of Sudan between 1954 and 1956, and as President of Sudan from ...
, was quickly replaced by a stalemated coalition of various conservative forces, which was in turn overthrown in the coup d'état of Chief of Staff Brigadier Ibrahim Abboud in 1958.


October 1964 protests

Resentment at the military government built up. On the evening of 20 October 1964, a raid by security forces on a seminar on "the Problem of the Southern Sudan" at the
University of Khartoum The University of Khartoum (U of K) ( ar, جامعة الخرطوم) is a public university located in Khartoum, Sudan. It is the largest and oldest university in Sudan. UofK was founded as Gordon Memorial College in 1902 and established in 195 ...
sparked off nationwide protests and a general strike. Abboud ceded to the massive scale of
civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". H ...
by creating an interim government in October 1964. These events became widely known as the "October Revolution" of Sudan or the " October 1964 Revolution". These protests included the first appearance of Islamist Hassan al-Turabi, who was then a student leader. Between 1966 and 1969, a series of Islamist-dominated administrations proved unable to deal with the variety of ethnic, economic and conflict problems afflicting the country. After a second military coup on 25 May 1969, Colonel Gaafar Nimeiry became Prime Minister and promptly outlawed political parties. Also during this time, the Anyanya insurgency took advantage of the unstable situations which enabled them to send their leaders and continue their operations abroad. Following Nimeiry's coup, Ugandan President
Milton Obote Apollo Milton Obote (28 December 1925 – 10 October 2005) was a Ugandan political leader who led Uganda to independence from British colonial rule in 1962. Following the nation's independence, he served as prime minister of Uganda from 1962 to ...
ordered the end of all aid to the Anyanya.


Political turmoil

In-fighting between
Marxist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...
and non-Marxist factions in the ruling military class led to another coup in July 1971 and a short-lived administration by the Sudanese Communist Party before anti-Communist factions put Nimeiry back in control of the country. That same year, German national Rolf Steiner, who had been clandestinely advising the rebels, was captured in Kampala, Uganda and deported to Khartoum, where he was put on trial for his anti-government activities. Originally sentenced to death, he would serve three years in prison before being released following pressure from the West German Government. The Southern politicians, on the other hand, attempted to gain more political control and temporarily established multiple provisional governments in the South. They hoped to use diplomatic means to achieve autonomy and separation but due to their political factionalism, were ineffectual in comparison to the Anyanya Insurgency


Unified Southern Front

The South was first led by the late leader
Aggrey Jaden Aggrey Jaden Ladu (1924, 1927, or 1928 — 1985 or 1987) was a South Sudanese politician, Biography Aggrey Jaden Ladu is from the Pojulu ethnic group, known for promoting the independence of South Sudan from Sudan. He was born in Loka village ...
; he left the movement in 1969 due to internal political disputes. In the same year
Gordon Muortat Mayen Gordon Muortat Mayen Maborjok (1922–2008) was a South Sudanese veteran politician and an advocate for the rights and freedom of the South Sudanese people. He was the President of the Nile Provisional Government (NPG) which led Anyanya I; Southe ...
was elected unanimously as the new leader of the South. Southern Sudan in this time changed their name to the Nile Republic and resumed warfare against Khartoum, however some of the former leader Jaden's troops would not accept a Dinka leader and fought against the Anyanya. In 1971, former army lieutenant Joseph Lagu formed a successful coup d'état against Gordon Muortat with help from Israel, which pledged him their support. In doing so, the defected Equatorian commander was able to unify these troops of guerrilla fighters under his Southern Sudan Liberation Movement (SSLM). This was the first time in the history of the warfare that a separatist movement had a unified command structure with the mutual objective to secede and build an independent state. It was also the first organization that could claim to speak for, and negotiate on behalf of, the entire south when the war ended. Mediation between the
World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...
(WCC) and the
All Africa Conference of Churches All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC, or CETA) is an ecumenical fellowship that represents more than 200 million African Christians in 204 national churches and regional Christian councils in 43 African Countries. AACC's head office is in ...
(AACC), both of which spent years building up trust with the two combatants, eventually led to the Addis Ababa Agreement of March 1972 which marked the end of the conflict.


Aftermath and impact

Since the beginning of their independence to the Addis Ababa Agreement, five hundred thousand people, of whom only one in five was considered an armed combatant, were killed while hundreds of thousands more were forced to leave their homes. The Addis Ababa Agreement was observed by Emperor
Haile Selassie Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (' ...
of Ethiopia and led to the establishment of a regional autonomy for South Sudan. It would be known as the Southern Regional Government and would have institutions such as a Regional Assembly and Executive Counsel serving as their legislative and executive branches. The brief interlude of peace become a relative calm and thriving period for Sudan. The agreement was able to address some of the critical grievances held by Southern Sudan to that of the Khartoum government. The immediate recognition of the region as sovereign and establishment of key political institutions were only a few examples of the major developments. Additionally, a new constitution was founded and Southern Sudan were led by localized law enforcement agencies than that from the Northern government. Despite these improvements, there was the prevention of the South's ability to have their own military and only remain autonomous under the Northern Sudanese regime. Therefore, the agreement proved only to be a temporary respite with no definitive means of peace keeping for Southern Sudan. Infringements by the north increased social unrest in the south in the mid-1970s, leading to the 1983 army mutiny that sparked the Second Sudanese Civil War, which lasted almost 22 years and contributed to the complete independence of
South Sudan South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of th ...
.


References


Bibliography

*Ali, Taisier Mohamed Ahmed, and Robert O. Matthews. ''Civil Wars in Africa : Roots and Resolution''. McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999. . *Arnold, Matthew, et al. ''South Sudan : From Revolution to Independence''. Oxford University Press, 2013. . * Assefa, Hizkias. 1987. ''Mediation of Civil Wars, Approaches and Strategies – The Sudan Conflict''. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. * * *Eprile, Cecil. ''War and Peace in the Sudan, 1955 – 1972''. David and Charles, London. 1974. . * Johnson, Douglas H. 1979. "Book Review: The Secret War in the Sudan: 1955–1972 by Edgar O'Ballance". ''African Affairs'' 78 (310):132–7. *Leach, Justin D. 2011. ''War and Politics in Sudan : Cultural Identities and the Challenges of the Peace Process''. International Library of African Studies: 36. I.B. Tauris. * * * * Poggo, Scopas Sekwat. 1999. ''War and Conflict in Southern Sudan, 1955–1972''. PhD Dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara. * {{Authority control Ethnicity-based civil wars 20th-century conflicts Wars involving Sudan Wars involving South Sudan Rebellions in Africa
Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
Civil wars involving the states and peoples of Africa Civil wars post-1945 Separatist rebellion-based civil wars History of South Sudan Proxy wars