ABSTRACT
After attaining independence in 1956, Sudan entered into a new era of inner turmoil as civil war between the North and the South broke out in 1962 and then again in 1983. Initiated by Anya Nya 1, a southern-based rebel group fighting for southern independence, the first civil war lasted until 1972 when the conflict ended with a peace accord named the Addis Ababa agreement. 1 A second civil war broke out in 1983 when the southern-based Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) rebelled against the central government in Khartoum. While some factions of SPLM/A had a secessionist agenda, the movement’s leader, John Garang, declared that “the SPLM/A is fighting to establish a united socialist democratic Sudan.” After twenty-two years of violence, famine, and disease, the war ended on January 9, 2005 when a Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was reached. Two million people lost their lives in the conflict.
