Summary of the civil wars in Sudan (1955 TO 2004)

Racial differences: Southern Sudan is occupied by blacks and the light skinned Arabs in the north. What brought about the civil war was the Arab racism and despising of the blacks.

The historic slave trade factor also led to the civil wars.

The British divide and rule policy (colonial legacy) also contributed to the civil wars in Sudan. Until 1946, the aim of the British was to keep the south separate from the north. All northerners serving in the police, army, schools etc.

The Arab domination of the South (colonial legacy) also led to the civil conflicts. When the divide and rule policy backfired in 1946, the British launched a new policy of re-unification of the South and the North.

Religious differences also caused tension that led to the civil war. Christian missionaries had turned the southerners into Christians and had taught them to hate the northern Moslems.

Unbalanced development also led to the civil wars. Largely due to colonial legacy, the north was economically, politically and educationally more advanced than the south. This naturally angered the Southern taxpayers whose money only developed the north, hence the civil strife.

The unfair pre-independence arrangements also caused tensions and the civil war.

The British supported the formation of pre-independence political parties in the north e.g the Umma Party and the National Unionist Party (NUP). The British never encouraged the formation of parties in the south.

The unfair hand over of power. At their departure, the British handed over power to the northern politicians and therefore left a fertile ground for civil wars. (colonial legacy).

Failure to grant secessionism to the southerners also led to the civil war. The blacks in the southern provinces of Equatoria , Bahr-al Ghazel and upper Nile demanded for a secession or at least a federal government but this was rejected by the British, leading to the August 1955 mutiny and future civil wars. This was also colonial legacy.

The forced Arabisation policy also led to civil wars, Between 1958 - 64, General Abboud embarked on a policy of forced Arabisation of the south. Christians were forced to fast during the Holy month of Ramadhan, Christian missionaries were forced to leave Sudan, Arabic was made the official language, southern languages were abolished in schools, thousands of sub grade teachers of the south were expelled, Islamic names were enforced on southerners etc.

Cultural arrogance. The northern officials displayed a superiority complex over the southerners whom they termed as their slaves.

The introduction of Arabic as the official language of instruction in schools instead of English annoyed the southerners who were already used to English and saw no reason of adopting a new alphabet. The language factor made them suspicious that they intended to destroy African culture

Mal administration whereby the northerners were harsh and corrupt led to the civil war. Since they were the ones in power, the northern administrators resorted to extortion. They squandered the country's wealth on Islamic festivals, which did not make meaning to the southerners. In short, bribery, extortion, racism and misappropriation of government funds drove the southerners into war.

Biased recruitment into the police and army. General Ibrahim Abboud showed open anti-southern bias while recruiting police and army cadets. Between 1959-1964, over 2000 cadets were recruited into the military college but of these, only 4 were southerners.

The rise of militant nationalism in the south explains the civil war. In 1955, southerners of the Equatoria corps/battalion mutinied and this was followed by wide spread riots in the three provinces of Equatoria, Bahr-el Ghazel and Upper Nile. Riots were brutally suppressed but this led to an outflow of exiles that formed political groups in exile, in 1962, various guerrilla groups resumed the armed revolt and first attacked a police post near the Uganda boarder.

The uncompromising attitude of the Anyanya also led to civil war. After the overthrow of General Abboud in 1964, a civilian prime minister Sir, El-Khatim-Khalifa tried to reconcile the southerners e.g he released southern political prisoners, appointed some southerners in fat political posts and organised the 1965 Khartoum conference to discuss peace.

Harsh rule led to the civil war. Sir El-Khalim was replaced by Prime Minister Mahgoub who look a military approach to solve the southern question. On 8th July 1965, a quarrel between a northern soldier and a southern hospital worker led to a fight, which led the northern soldiers to massacre southerners, in the town of Juba, houses were burnt and more than 1000 were killed.

External influence also explains the civil war. Israel supported the Anyanya rebels; so was Britain, which was pressurised by the expelled missionaries. To this was added the ideological efforts to divide and support the different sides of Sudan. Israel supported the rebels so as to keep Sudan busy at home and divert her From the Arab-Israelite conflict.

Natural hazards like famine in the south were blamed on the negligence of the northern dominated government and hence the civil war.

Greed for power by Joseph Lagu and later John Garang.

Influence of Islamic fundamentalism- No accommodation of Christian views.

Nimeiri's military offensive against the southerners made them fight on. He came to power determined to end the civil war through peaceful methods, He created a ministry of southern affairs, appointed a number of southerners to important offices and won great support. However in 1970, he declared war against the Anyanya remnants in the bush and this led to more fighting.

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National Movements and New States in Africa