Second Sudanese Civil War
A 22-year civil war leading to South Sudan's independence.
The Second Sudanese Civil War, fought between the central government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, ran from 1983 to 2005. It is largely seen as a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil War, which lasted from 1955 to 1972. The conflict began in southern Sudan but later expanded into the Nuba Mountains and the Blue Nile region. Spanning nearly 22 years, it ranks among the longest civil wars in history. Six years after the war ended, South Sudan gained independence.
Roughly two million people died because of the fighting. About four million people in southern Sudan were displaced at least once, and often repeatedly. The civilian death toll is among the highest of any war since World War II, and the conflict was marked by widespread human rights abuses, including slavery and mass killings.
**Background and causes**
Wars in Sudan are often described as struggles between a central government trying to expand its control and peoples on the periphery, who feel marginalized. For centuries, kingdoms and major powers along the Nile River have clashed with people from Sudan’s interior. Since at least the 1700s, central authorities have tried to regulate and exploit the less developed southern and inland areas.
Some view the conflict as ethnoreligious, with the Arab-Muslim central government’s attempt to impose Sharia law in 1983 on non-Muslim southerners sparking violence and eventually civil war. Historian Douglas Johnson, however, points to exploitative governance as the root cause.
During British colonial rule, the northern and southern provinces were administered separately. The south was seen as more similar to other East African colonies like Kenya, Tanganyika, and Uganda, while the north was closer to Arabic-speaking Egypt. Northern Arabs were barred from holding power in the south, and trade between the two regions was discouraged. But in 1946, the British yielded to northern pressure and integrated the two areas. Arabic became the language of administration in the south, and northerners began taking positions there. Southern elites, who had been trained in English, resented this change as they were shut out of government. After decolonization, most power went to northern elites in Khartoum, fueling unrest in the south. The British moved toward granting Sudan independence but did not include southern Sudanese leaders in negotiations during the 1950s transition. In the post-colonial government of 1953, the Sudanization Committee had only six southerners out of 800 senior administrative posts.
The second war was also about natural resources. Significant oil fields lie between the north and south, drawing foreign interest—oil revenue is privatized to Western interests, as in Nigeria. Northerners wanted control of these resources because they live on the edge of the Sahara, where agriculture is difficult. Oil makes up about 70% of Sudan’s export earnings. The south, with its many Nile tributaries and heavier rainfall, has better water access and more fertile land.
There was also substantial death from tribal fighting in the south, mostly between the Nuer and Dinka, though other ethnic groups were involved. These tribal conflicts continued after South Sudan’s independence.
The first civil war ended in 1972 with the Addis Ababa Agreement, which granted religious and cultural autonomy to the south. Despite this, mutinies by former Anyanya fighters occurred in 1974, 1975, and February 1976. The March 1975 mutiny at Akobo left 200 dead, 150 soldiers executed, and 48 more sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.
**Course of the war**
**Before 1985**
The Addis Ababa Agreement’s terms had been written into Sudan’s constitution, but violations of the agreement led to the second civil war. The first violations came when President Gaafar Nimeiry tried to take control of oil fields along the north–south border. Oil was discovered in Bentiu in 1978, in southern Kordofan and Upper Blue Nile in 1979, the Unity oilfields in 1980, Adar oilfields in 1981, and Heglig in 1982. Whoever controlled these fields gained major economic benefits.
Islamic fundamentalists in the north were unhappy with the Addis Ababa Agreement, which gave relative autonomy to the non-Islamic Southern Sudan Autonomous Region. Their influence grew, and in 1983 President Nimeiry declared all of Sudan an Islamic state, ending the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region and sparking the Second Sudanese Civil War.
**Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA)**
In May 1983, the 105th Battalion of the 1st Division in the Sudanese military mutinied in the towns of Bor and Pibor. Government soldiers tried to suppress the mutiny but were pushed back by the rebels. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) was founded that same year as a rebel group aiming to reestablish an autonomous southern Sudan by fighting the central government. Though based in the south, it claimed to represent all oppressed Sudanese citizens and was led by John Garang. Initially, the SPLA campaigned for a united Sudan, criticizing the government for policies that were causing national “disintegration.”
In September 1985, the Government of Sudan ended the state of emergency and dismantled the emergency courts, but soon passed a new judiciary act that continued many of the same practices. Despite Nimeiry’s public promises that non-Muslims’ rights would be respected, southerners and other non-Muslims remained deeply suspicious.
- Location
- Southern Sudan, Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile
- Combatants
- Central Sudanese government vs. Sudan People's Liberation Army
- Estimated Deaths
- Roughly two million
- Displaced
- Four million in southern Sudan
Quick Facts
- Conflict
- Second Sudanese Civil War
- Part Of
- the Sudanese Civil Wars and the South Sudanese wars of independence
- Date
- 5 June 1983 – 9 January 2005 / (month1=6 · day1=5 · year1=1983 · month2=1 · day2=9 · year2=2005)
- Location
- Blue Nile, Nuba Mountains, Southern Sudan
- Result
- Stalemate / Comprehensive Peace Agreement / Independence of the Republic of South Sudan following a 2011 referendum
- Strength1
- Sudan Tens of thousands / Ex-FAR: 500Prunier · 2004 · p=377
- Strength2
- Flag of the SPLA (until 2011).svg Tens of thousands
- Casualties3
- 1–2 million dead (mostly civilians, due to starvation and drought)
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The war originated in southern Sudan and spread to the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile. The conflict was marked by numerous human rights violations, including slavery and mass killings, and resulted in roughly two million deaths and four million displaced people. Led by John Garang, the SPLA initially campaigned for a united Sudan, criticizing the central government for policies leading to national disintegration. The war was partially about natural resources, including significant oil fields between north and south.
Reader's Guide
The Second Sudanese Civil War is significant as one of the longest civil wars on record, lasting nearly 22 years. It resulted in the independence of South Sudan six years after the war ended, reshaping the political geography of Africa. The conflict's civilian death toll is among the highest of any war since World War II, with widespread human rights violations including slavery and mass killings. The war highlighted tensions between the central government and peripheral regions, with roots in colonial administration that separated northern and southern Sudan. The discovery of oil fields along the north-south border added economic dimensions to the conflict. The war also demonstrated the challenges of implementing peace agreements, as the Addis Ababa Agreement that ended the first civil war was violated, leading to renewed conflict. The SPLA's role as a movement for all oppressed Sudanese citizens, despite its southern base, reflected broader issues of marginalization in Sudan.
Did You Know?
- The war resulted in the independence of South Sudan 6 years after the war ended.
- Roughly two million people died as a result of the conflict.
- The war was marked by human rights violations including slavery and mass killings.
Origins: A Fractured Transition
The war that erupted in Sudan on 15 April 2023 was not born in a vacuum. It grew out of the fragile transitional government that had followed the 2021 military coup, a coup that was itself part of a long pattern—Sudan has endured twenty coup attempts since gaining independence in 1956, with military rule dominating the intervals between brief democratic experiments. The immediate trigger was a bitter dispute over whether the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary outfit originally assembled from Janjaweed militias during the 2003 Darfur conflict, would be absorbed into the regular Sudanese Armed Forces. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, heading the internationally recognized SAF government, and General Hemedti, who commanded the RSF and its rival Government of Peace and Unity, could not resolve their rivalry through negotiation. When talks collapsed, the RSF struck government installations in Khartoum and other cities, and the country's two most powerful armed factions turned on each other. Smaller armed groups, including Sudan Liberation Movement splinter factions, the Tamazuj militia, and the Darfur Joint Protection Force, quickly aligned with one side or the other, widening the conflict beyond its original two protagonists.
Shifting Frontlines: From Khartoum to Darfur
The fighting opened with the Battle of Khartoum, where RSF units targeted government buildings and military sites in the capital. The capital region itself became a divided battleground, and al-Burhan was forced to relocate his government to the port city of Port Sudan. As the war expanded, combat spread into the western Darfur region, the Kordofan, and Gezira. By the end of 2023, the RSF held most of Darfur and had captured large portions of Khartoum, Kordofan, and Gezira. The momentum then reversed: in 2024 the SAF pushed back, recapturing Omdurman and eventually retaking Khartoum by March 2025. Meanwhile, the war drew in additional actors. The SPLM-North launched attacks against the SAF in the south, the Tamazuj movement threw its weight behind the RSF, and the SAF received backing from factions of the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement. One of the war's most harrowing campaigns was the siege of El Fasher, the SAF's final stronghold in Darfur, which began in April 2024. The city fell to the RSF on 26 October 2025, an event that triggered what experts described as a genocidal massacre. Despite multiple rounds of negotiation, no durable ceasefire has held, and the conflict continues to rage.
A Humanitarian Catastrophe Without Precedent
The human cost of this war is staggering. By mid-2026, more than fourteen million people had been forcibly displaced, and 4.5 million had fled Sudan entirely, creating one of the largest displacement crises of the modern era. Twenty-five million Sudanese faced severe food insecurity, while four million children suffered acute malnutrition—770,000 of them at imminent risk of death. Famine was confirmed in multiple regions. Hospitals closed, disease spread, humanitarian supplies were looted, and the education system and basic infrastructure nearly collapsed, leaving half the population in desperate need. In Khartoum State alone, 61,000 people lost their lives, of whom 26,000 were direct victims of violence. The fall of El Fasher in October 2025 brought what some analysts called the largest massacre of the twenty-first century, with estimates ranging from 60,000 to 70,000 deaths and satellite-based figures as high as 150,000. Sexual violence was widespread. United Nations under-secretary Tom Fletcher called Darfur the "epicenter of human suffering in the world." The total death toll, combining combat fatalities, starvation, and disease, remains difficult to pin down, with thousands still missing.
Foreign Entanglements and the Question of Accountability
The war has never been purely domestic. Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates have all exerted significant influence, while spillover from conflicts in the Central African Republic, Chad, and Libya has further complicated the picture. International diplomacy, including the 2023 Jeddah Declaration, failed to halt the fighting. The United States, United Kingdom, European Union, and Canada imposed sanctions on entities linked to both factions over ceasefire violations and human rights abuses. Yet the UAE was found to be circumventing those sanctions by shipping Chinese-made weaponry to the RSF, a group that largely finances its operations through gold exports to the UAE. On the legal front, the situation reached a critical threshold on 7 January 2025, when the United States government formally determined that the RSF and its allied militias had committed acts of genocide, a finding that echoed earlier International Criminal Court indictments for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The killings of Masalit civilians in Darfur have been specifically identified as part of a genocide. Calls have mounted for increased humanitarian aid, legal protections for aid workers, refugee support, and a complete halt to international arms flows to the RSF.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the human toll of the Second Sudanese Civil War?
An estimated two million people lost their lives during the nearly 22-year conflict. Additionally, around four million residents of southern Sudan were displaced from their homes.
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