First Sudanese Civil War
| First Sudanese Civil War | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Sudanese Civil Wars and the South Sudanese wars of independence | |||||||
Sudan (red) before 2011; the first civil war took place in the country's south | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
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Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1955–1956) Republic of the Sudan (1956–1969) Democratic Republic of the Sudan (1969–1972) Combat support: Uganda (Joint operations on Ugandan territory, 1965–1969) Libyan Arab Republic (From 1969 and combat involvement at least in 1970) Non-combat support: United Arab Republic Soviet Union United Kingdom China Yugoslavia East Germany Czechoslovakia Saudi Arabia Kingdom of Libya (until 1969) Algeria United States West Germany |
SDF mutineers, bandits, and unaffiliated separatist militias ALF (1965–1970) Anyanya (from 1963) Israel (from 1969) Supported by: Ethiopia Uganda (from about 1970) Congo-Léopoldville Kenya France | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Alexander Knox Helm Ismail al-Azhari Gaafar Nimeiry |
Joseph Lagu Gordon Muortat Mayen David Ben-Uziel | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
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Sudanese Armed Forces: 6,000–7,000 (1955) 36,000 (late 1971) |
Anyanya: 6,000–12,000 c. 18,000 (late 1960s) | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 500,000–1 million killed including 100,000+ combatants | |||||||
The First Sudanese Civil War (also known as the Anyanya Rebellion or Anyanya I, after the name of the rebels, a term in the Madi language which means 'snake venom') was fought from 1955 to 1972 between the northern part of Sudan and the southern Sudan region which demanded representation and more regional autonomy. The war was divided into four major stages: initial guerrilla warfare, the creation of the Anyanya insurgency, political strife within the government, and establishment of the Southern Sudan Liberation Movement. Around a million people died over the course of the nearly 17-year long war.
Although the Addis Ababa Agreement ended the war in 1972, it failed to completely dispel the tensions and addressed only some of the issues stated by southern Sudan. The breakdown of the initial appeasement later led to a reigniting of the north–south conflict during the Second Sudanese Civil War, which lasted from 1983 to 2005.