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Book chapter Book chapter Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Sudan People's Liberation Army and the problem of factionalism
Author:Johnson, Douglas H.ISNI
Book title:African guerrillas / ed. by Christopher Clapham. - Oxford: James Currey
Year:1998
Pages:53-72
Language:English
Geographic term:Sudan
Subject:rebellions
Abstract:To understand the current position of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), especially with regard to the factionalism which has been its greatest problem since 1991, comparisons should be made less with other regional movements and more with its immediate predecessor, the Anyanya of the first Sudanese civil war (c. 1960-1972). The SPLA deliberately set about to avert the localism and factions which undermined the old Anyanya, and was to a large extent successful. It achieved in a short time an integration of forces and a unity of command that far exceeded anything attributable to the old Anyanya, and this was demonstrated in the military successes of the 1980s. By 1990 the SPLA's position was extremely strong in the field, but its rear bases in Ethiopia were vulnerable as Mengistu's regime began to crumble. The Derg's sudden collapse in 1991 was a serious blow to the SPLA and led to a return to factionalism. In an examination of the SPLA's response to the 1991 crisis the author suggests that it is within the framework of a functioning civil administration throughout SPLA-controlled territory that one can find the answer to the overall success of the SPLA in securing and holding onto large sections of the rural civilian population. Notes, ref.
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