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Sudan
First Civil War, 1955-72
In August 1955, five months before independence, southern troops
of the Equatoria Corps, together with police, mutinied in Torit
and other towns. The mutinies were suppressed although some of
the rebels were able to escape to rural areas. There they formed
guerrilla bands but, being poorly armed and organized, presented
no extensive threat to security. The later emergence of a secessionist
movement in the south led to the formation of the Anya Nya guerrilla
army, composed of remnants of the 1955 mutineers and recruits
among southern students. Active at first only in Al Istiwai, Anya
Nya carried its rebellion to all three southern provinces between
1963 and 1969. In 1971 a former army lieutenant, Joseph Lagu,
united the ethnically fragmented guerrilla bands in support of
a new political movement, the Southern Sudan Liberation Movement
(SSLM). The war ended in March 1972 with an agreement between
Nimeiri and Lagu that conceded to the south a single regional
government with defined powers.
Data as of June 1991
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