SUMMARY
The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) was a rebel group based in Darfur, the most western region of Sudan. Rebels in Darfur emerged in February 2003 under the name Darfur Liberation Front, but on 14 March 2003, when releasing their Political Declaration, the name SLM/A was adopted.
The SLM/A stated in a press release that it fought for a secular Sudan with a decentralized form of governance, using armed struggle as one of the means to achieve their political goals. This stated goal showed that the agenda of SLM/A was national, and not just focused on Darfur, even though they were based in that region. The SLM/A stated that they did not have any connections to the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) that fought the Sudanese government from the South but that they had “an understanding” for their struggle.
Darfur is inhabited by several different tribes, some referred to as African and some as Arab. The main tribes that made up the support base for the SLM/A were the three non-Arab tribes of Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit. The most numerous tribe in Darfur is the sedentary Fur which also has given name to the region; Dar meaning home in Arabic and Darfur thus meaning Home of the Furs in English.
As the SLM/A wanted to create a coalition among different tribes, it was decided that the leadership should consist of people from all three of the main tribes which made up the movement. Abdul Wahid Mohammad al-Nur, a Fur lawyer, became the Secretary-General of SLM/A, and, Minni Minawi from the semi-nomadic and cattle-herding Zaghawa tribe, became Secretary of the rebel group. Despite the outspoken purpose of SLM/A to remain united, tribal differences led to a split within the movement in October 2005. Minni Minawi organized an SLM/A conference in a village in Eastern Darfur called Haskanita, which was boycotted by SLM/A President Abdul Wahid as he considered the conference to be too dominated by the Zaghawa tribe whilst his tribe, Fur, was underrepresented. At the end of the conference, Minawi was elected as the new leader of SLM/A, however, this was not accepted by Adbul Wahid or by the head of the SLM/A Khartoum office. Hence, Minni Minawi failed to take control of the group and split from the SLM/A establishing his faction SLM/A-MM. After this split, the SLM/A fractionalized further, and the rebels in Darfur were made up of several different groups, where alliances were created and broken on several occasions.
By 2011, SLM/A was one of the groups that established an armed coalition called the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) together with JEM and SLM/A-MM also based in Darfur, and with SPLM/A-North based in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states. As the SRF became involved in negotiations with the Government of Sudan in 2016, a rift within the coalition appeared as SLM/A refused to sign a roadmap agreement in August 2016. Abdul Wahid later stated that the group would not take part in any negotiations with the Sudanese government until the pro-government militias in Darfur had been disarmed and the security of the population in the area had been restored. By this time SLM/A stopped taking part in SRF's coordination meetings, consequently splintering from the alliance, again acting as a separate actor in UCDP data.
SLFA (Sudan Liberation Force Alliance), previously known as SLM/A – Unity (Sudan Liberation Movement/Army – Unity), was a Sudanese rebel group that splintered from the SLM/A) and formed following the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) in May 2006. It began as an unorganized group of nineteen, mostly Zaghawa commanders, who were disappointed with the leadership of the SLM/A) under Abdul Wahid. As a result, the Group of 19 (G-19) as they came to be known, separated from the SLM/A during the negotiations for the DPA but they lacked a political strategy, were not involved in the negotiations and rejected the agreement. The G-19 later renamed itself SLM/A – Unity and subsequently became the largest faction to splinter from the SLM/A).
SLM/A – Unity maintained the same objective as the SLM/A) and sought to establish a secular Sudan with a decentralized form of governance. This included self-determination for the region of Darfur. In addition, it emphasized the significance of having positive relations with local communities and their tribal leaders, which they identified as having been alienated by the SLM/A) due to its behavior. In particular, it sought to defend the African population of Darfur that had been particularly targeted by forces belonging to the Government of Sudan.
Members of SLM/A – Unity were mostly from North Darfur and drew predominantly from the Zaghawa although it maintained a multicultural dynamic and included other ethnic groups such as the Masalit too. Amarai and Hashaba, located in North Darfur, were the main bases of support for the group. In early 2009, some commanders and fighters left SLM/A – Unity to join JEM but the group claimed that many later returned to SLM/A – Unity after becoming disillusioned with their choice.
The SLM/A – Unity is believed to have had at least 5000 troops and its weaponry consisted of small arms.
Abdallah Yahya was the Chairman of SLM/A – Unity; he was a popular Zaghawa commander from Amarai, North Darfur. Dr. Sharif Harir was another key leader of the group; he was a Zaghawa intellectual and veteran fighter, who also co-founded the NRF and had close connections to Eritrea and Chad. Other significant figures included: Ahmad Kubbur, who was a Rizeigat commander from South Darfur, and Suleiman Jamous, who served as the humanitarian coordinator and previously as the humanitarian coordinator for SLM/A – MM. Mahgoub Hussein was the spokesman for SLM/A – Unity.
Under its initial name of G-19, SLM/A – Unity entered a tactical alliance with the NRF and fought against the Government of Sudan for several months during 2006 before the alliance fell apart. On 13 April 2012, SLM/A – Unity signed a pact with JEM establishing an alliance between the two armed rebel groups. It then went on to form the Sudan Liberation Front Alliance in July 2017 with two small Darfur-based rebel groups; one faction of JEM led by Abdallah Bishr Gali and the Sudan Liberation Movement for Justice led by Tahir Hajar.
The Government of Chad provided weapons and material support to SLM/A – Unity, although it received less support than JEM, which mirrored the behavior of the Sudanese government towards Chadian rebel groups. The Chadian government perceived this as an attempt to either overthrow the regime or force it to cooperate with Sudan on its terms. The Government of Libya also provided a small amount of non-military support to SLM/A – Unity due to its interest in preventing the conflict in Darfur from being resolved through a solution involving international peacekeeping and mediation.
