SUMMARY

SPLM/A-North-MA faction (Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-North Malik Agar-faction) was a rebel group that splintered from SPLM/A-North in 2017. The main reason behind the split related to issues regarding the direction and the leadership of the group. Abdelaziz al-Hilu resigned from his position as Deputy Chairman of SPLM/A-North in March 2017. He criticized the leadership of Chairman Malik Agar, the group’s negotiating position on self-determination of the Nuba Mountains, and other organizational issues. Two regional bodies of the rebel movement, Nuba Mountains Liberation Council and Blue Nile Liberation Council, rejected al-Hilu’s resignation and subsequently decided to remove both Malik Agar as Chairman, and Yasir Arman as the General-secretary and chief negotiator with the Government of Sudan, and instead appoint al-Hilu as the transitional chairman of SPLM/A-North. In conjunction with his removal, Malik Agar declared the decision ”a coup d'état based on tribal alliances”. The movement thus split along ethnic lines, with the Ingessana joining Agar, and the Uduk remaining with al-Hilu. Thus, SPLM/A-North-MA was created. The birth of the new organization was not peaceful, but was marred by ethnically driven confrontations and communal rivalries which increased tensions in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states, known as the Two Areas. The violence subsequently also spread to refugee camps across the South Sudanese border.

The SPLM/A-North-MA faction ascribed to the political vision of “a New Sudan” created by the deceased John Garang, founder of SPLM/A. The ambition of the SPLM/A-North-MA faction was to overthrow the Government of Sudan and to unite Sudan by creating a system of governance that would benefit the whole population regardless of ethnicity, gender or religion. The SPLM/A-North-MA faction mainly operated in the Blue Nile state, located in the south-eastern part of Sudan, on the border with South Sudan.

As indicated above, the SPLM/A-North-MA faction was made up by troops from SPLM/A-North that objected to the new leadership of al-Hilu, and instead chose to remain loyal to Malik Agar. Yet, after the formation of the SPLM/A-North-MA faction, it was clear that SPLM/A-North, led by al-Hilu, had the most support among the civil population in the Two Areas, as well as among the group’s fighters. The SPLM/A-North-MA faction remained a relatively small rebel group which was centralized around the leadership of Chairman Agar, and Deputy Chairman Arman. Agar had a history of close ties with SRF, a coalition of groups that opposed the Government of Sudan led by President al-Bashir. Agar had previously led the coalition when serving as the Chairman of SPLM/A-North, and after a dispute over chairmanship in 2015, SRF practically split into two factions, one which was led by Agar. It seems like SRF was allied politically to the SPLM/A-North-MA faction throughout their conflict with SPLM/A-North. SRF worked together with the SPLM/A-N-MA faction to solve the conflict issues in the Two Areas (see the state-based conflict and the non-state conflict). SPLM/A-North on the other hand, had different goals than the SPLM/A-N-MA faction, including the demand to turn Sudan into a secular state. SPLM/A-North pursued their own peace negotiations with the government and it does not appear that SRF supported the group after the split with Agar.

In December 2019, a humanitarian and ceasefire agreement was signed between Sudan’s transitional government and the SPLM/A-North-MA faction. The accord’s biggest focal point was a humanitarian protocol that facilitated the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Two Areas, which had suffered badly from the ongoing conflicts. The humanitarian issues in the region had been a major obstacle in the peace negotiations over the years. Further progress was made in January 2020, when the Sudanese transitional government and the SPLM/A-North-MA faction signed a framework peace agreement, after negotiations led by the Government of South Sudan. The framework agreement included, among other points, the right to legislate in the Two Areas, principles of security arrangements, power and wealth sharing.