The History of Modern Sudan Civil Wars
The roots of the Sudan civil wars reach back to 1946 when the British government changed its policy of administering northern and southern Sudan as separate regions by putting them together as one, and to February 1953 when Great Brittan and Egypt made an agreement providing for Sudanese self-government. The British had a maintained presence in Sudan since 1869 when explorer Samuel Baker was commissioned governor of Equatoria Province. There was a transitional period from 1953 through the end of 1955 beginning with the installation of the first parliament in 1954. During this time, it became clear that Southern Sudan was going to have virtually no part in the new government. Full independence came on January 1, 1956.
This oversight of Southern Sudan by the British, whether intentional or not, assured the establishment of a resistance movement in the South before the new government was even inaugurated. The Arab/Islamic government centered in the northern city of Khartoum from the outset gave the southerners no choice but subjugation or resistance; many southerners chose the latter. It began on August 18, 1955, when the Equatoria Corps, a southern military unit in Torit refused to surrender to Northern troops. The first Sudanese civil war began with the purpose of establishing an independent Southern Sudan. This war lasted seventeen years, from 1955 to 1972, and claimed more than 500,000 lives.
Because of a succession of unstable governments in the north and the fact that Joseph Lagu was able to unify most of the southern factions in 1971, the Khartoum regimes were never able to subdue the southerners. A consortium of church organizations brokered a peace deal in 1972 that held until 1983. This gave Southern Sudan a large degree of autonomy.
Civil war resumed in 1983, mainly because the Khartoum-based Islamic governments had become increasingly radicalized and finally decided to force their religion on the people of the south. This second war proved far more devastating than the first, with 2,000,000 deaths and 4,000,000 people displaced from their homes; that's almost 80% of the southern population. The US committee for refugees reports that more civilians were killed in the second Sudan war than any war since World War II. Later, Khartoum's motivation for controlling the south became blurred with the discovery of oil and mineral wealth.
