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First Sudanese Civil War: A Visual History

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Visual history of a war

The southern mutiny of 1955 that became a 17-year war between the Arab-Muslim north and the African south, ended by autonomy at Addis Ababa.

Fought
1955 to 1972
Duration
17 years
Dates
18 August 1955 to 27 March 1972
Deaths
About 500,000, mostly civilians
Government
Sudan under Abboud, civilian governments, Nimeiri; Egyptian and Soviet arms
Rebels
Anyanya; Southern Sudan Liberation Movement under Joseph Lagu; Israeli aid via Uganda
Result
Addis Ababa Agreement; southern autonomy

The First Sudanese Civil War (1955-1972) began with the Torit mutiny of southern troops in August 1955, months before Sudan's independence, as southerners feared domination by the northern Arab elite who inherited British rule. Guerrilla bands coalesced in the 1960s into the Anyanya ('snake venom') movement, and after 1969 Nimeiri's coup and Joseph Lagu's unification of the rebels under the Southern Sudan Liberation Movement, both sides were ready to talk. The Addis Ababa Agreement of March 1972, brokered by Haile Selassie and the World Council of Churches, gave the south a regional government. About 500,000 died; the peace lasted 11 years.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

The bold bar is First Sudanese Civil War. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

1200130014001500160017001800190020002100First Sudanese Civil War (1955 to 1972)Open: Ottoman EmpireOttoman Empire (1299 to 1922)Open: Spanish EmpireSpanish Empire (1492 to 1976)Open: British EmpireBritish Empire (1583 to 1997)Open: Second French colonial empireSecond French colonial empire (1830 to 1980)Open: Mahdist WarMahdist War (1881 to 1899)Open: Italian EmpireItalian Empire (1882 to 1947)Open: Nazi GermanyNazi Germany (1933 to 1945)Open: Ethiopian Civil War and Eritrean War of IndependenceEthiopian Civil War and Eritrean War of Independence (1961 to 1991)Open: Uganda-Tanzania War and Ugandan Bush WarUganda-Tanzania War and Ugandan Bush War (1978 to 1986)Open: Second Sudanese Civil WarSecond Sudanese Civil War (1983 to 2005)Open: War in DarfurWar in Darfur (2003 to present)Open: South Sudanese Civil WarSouth Sudanese Civil War (2013 to 2020)

Estimated deaths in Sudan's civil wars

0500100015002000First civil war 1955-72: 500500First civil war 1955-72Second civil war 1983-2005: 20002000Second civil war 1983-2005Darfur 2003-: 300300Darfur 2003-South Sudan 2013-20: 400400South Sudan 2013-20thousands (approximate)

Timeline of the First Sudanese Civil War

  1. 1955
    Torit mutiny18 August.
  2. 1956
    Sudanese independence
  3. 1958
    Abboud's coup
  4. 1963
    Anyanya formed
  5. 1965
    Juba and Wau massacres
  6. 1969
    Nimeiri's coup
  7. 1971
    Lagu unifies the rebels
  8. 1972
    Addis Ababa Agreement

Torit and independence

Britain had governed the south separately, restricting northern traders and encouraging missions, then reversed policy in 1947 and handed the country to Khartoum. When southern soldiers of the Equatoria Corps at Torit learned they were to be moved north in August 1955, they mutinied and killed northern officers and civilians; hundreds died. Sudan became independent on 1 January 1956 with the south's demand for federation ignored.

Anyanya

General Abboud's military regime (1958-1964) Islamised and Arabised the south, expelling missionaries in 1964; exiles formed political movements and, from 1963, the Anyanya guerrillas. Civilian governments after 1964 held a round-table conference but continued the war; the army burned villages and killed thousands at Juba and Wau in 1965. Israel armed the rebels via Uganda; the government bought Soviet aircraft.

Addis Ababa

Nimeiri seized power in 1969, survived a communist coup in 1971 and turned to the south for support. Lagu, who had unified the fractious Anyanya, negotiated with Abel Alier's government team under Ethiopian and church mediation. The Addis Ababa Agreement of 27 March 1972 created a Southern Region with its own assembly and executive, absorbed Anyanya into the army and made English the south's working language. Nimeiri won a Nobel nomination; he then broke the agreement in 1983 and war returned.

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8 surprising things about the First Sudanese Civil War

  1. The first war began before Sudan was even independent.
  2. The name Anyanya means 'snake venom' in the Madi language, for a poison used on arrows.
  3. Israel supported the southern rebels to tie down an Arab state, one of its earliest African covert operations.
  4. Nimeiri, who made peace, was also the man who broke it eleven years later by imposing sharia.
  5. The Addis Ababa Agreement was the first negotiated end to a civil war in post-colonial Africa.
  6. Southern leaders were mostly educated in mission schools; the missionaries' expulsion in 1964 radicalised a generation.
  7. Joseph Lagu became vice-president of Sudan under the settlement.
  8. The war's refugees in Uganda included many who later formed the SPLA of the second war.

Sources

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