Sudan: a violent history

Last Modified: 11 Jul 2008
By: Channel 4 News

Sudan has a chequered past of violent ethnic conflict.

Civil war

In 1983, a previous president, Gaafar Nimeiry, violated the terms of an existing peace agreement and then went on to implement Sharia Law. The result was war between the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), based in the south, and government forces, which lasted for over twenty years.

Even after Nimeiry was ousted and elections held in 1986, the leader of the SPLA, John Garang, refused to recognise the new government.

Omar al-Bashir and the National Islamic Front, led by Hassan al-Turabi, took control of Sudan in a coup in 1989. They formed the Popular Defence Forces (al Difaa al Shaabi) to take over from the army, using religious propaganda to recruit.

Millions of people were killed or displaced and the economic repercussions led to food shortages, starvation and poor investment in infrastructure, particularly in the south.

It wasn't until 2003 that peace talks progress in earnest, and a Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed in January 2005. This agreement granted southern Sudan autonomy for six years, after which a referendum on independence would be held. It also agreed the allocation of oil deposits, but left armies on both sides in place.

In March of the same year, the UN Security Council established a UN Mission in Sudan to assist with the implementation of the peace agreement, provide humanitarian assistance and promote human rights.

Yet, from October to December 2007 the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (the successor to the SPLA) withdrew from the government to protest at the slow implementation of the peace agreement. More recently there have also been clashes in the oil-rich Abyei region on the border between north and south.

Darfur

Two years before the peace agreement was signed to end the civil war, conflict started to mount in the western region of Darfur.

Rebels accused the government of neglecting the region, and, in 2003, fighting broke out between these groups and the pro-government Arab "Janjaweed" militias.

In September 2004, the then US secretary of state, Colin Powell, labelled the actions of the militia as genocide. Millions of people were being displaced from their homes and hundreds of thousands of people had been killed.

Reports of violence included killing on the basis of ethnicity, rape and looting land, goods and livestock.

In May 2006, the Sudanese government and the largest rebel group in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Movement, signed a peace agreement, which included the disarmament of the Janjaweed and rebel groups. However, the agreement was not signed by all groups involved in the conflict and wide-spread violence is still reported in the region.

Later that year, the Sudanese government rejected a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur, In April 2007, they then said they would accept a smaller force of UN troops to assist the African Union peacekeepers. The UN eventually took over the Darfur peace force in January 2008.