SUMMARY
Fighting between SPLM/A (Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement/Army) and the group is currently known as SSDF (South Sudan Defence Force) goes as far back as 1991 and can be traced to the origins of SSDF as a splinter of SPLM/A. The split between the two groups took place violently in 1991, as a senior commander of SPLM/A, Riek Machar, tried to force a coup against SPLM/A's leader, John Garang, for the leadership of the group. As Machar was unsuccessful in his attempts to take over SPLM/A, he established a new organization, SPLM/A (Nasir), with a stated goal of achieving independence for South Sudan, as opposed to SPLM/A's goal to replace the Sudanese government with one that would be more accommodating of the demands of Southern Sudanese. Upon this split, heavy fighting ensued between the two groups over control of various parts in Southern Sudan in what has been described as a South-South War. Furthermore, fighting was also based on ethnic motives, as the split took place on ethnic lines - most Nuer chose to align themselves to Machar's SPLM/A (Nasir) while most Dinka aligned themselves with Garang. Ethnic cleansing within each organisation was also reported, further adding fuel to the conflict between the two groups.
After the split, both groups employed ethnicity as a tool for mobilization, and, as such, fighting between the two groups becoming deeply intertwined with the inter-ethnic disputes between the Dinka and the Nuer people. Violence intensified as tribal and clan chiefs became involved with either SPLM/A or SPLM/A (Nasir), and as civilians from the opposite tribe got killed in the process.
Further tensions between the two groups appeared as Machars faction obtained various forms of support (presumably weapons and funding) from the Government of Sudan. This support came in contradiction to SPLM/A (Nasir) own goal of secession of South Sudan, SPLM/A (Nasir) being presumed by SPLM/A and external observers to be little more than a tool of the military against SPLM/A's insurgency. Throughout the 1990s, support by the government for SPLM/A (Nasir) (known after 1994 as SSIM/A - South Sudan Independence Movement/Army) increased substantially. At this point, external observers described the conflict between SPLM/A and SSIM/A to be little more than a governmental strategy to divide and destroy the opposition groups of South Sudan in order to secure the oil fields in the area for development.
A further turning point in the history of violence between SSIM/A and SPLM/A came after April 1997, when Riek Machar's group, SSIM/A signed a peace agreement with the Government of Sudan (the Khartoum Agreement), transforming itself in SSDF and becoming pro-governmental militia. After 1997, SSDF not only guarded the oil-rich territories under its control from various SPLM/A attacks but also sent, on occasion, troops to fight alongside the Government of Sudan against SPLM/A.
The first signs of an end in the rivalry betweenSPLM/A and SSDF came in February-March 1999, when a large number of Dinka and Nuer clans agreed to a truce at the Wunlit Reconciliation Conference. This allowed most of the ethnic-based tensions prevalent between mainly-Nuer SPLM/A and mainly-Dinka SSDF to reduce, setting in motion a lengthy reconciliation process. This reconciliation process took almost three years, and ended in a large number of factions from within SSDF joining SPLM/A. Further, by late 1999, the Government of Sudan no longer provided support for SSDF, rather choosing to arm various Nuer militias as part of their tactics of dividing and destroying Sudan's opposition groups. By 2005, fighting between SSDF and SPLM/A by-and-large ended and, further, most of SSDF dissolved in the aftermath of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed by SPLM/A and the Government of Sudan that forced the dissolution of the various constituent militias of SSDF into SPLM/A that was to become the only armed forces within South Sudan.
The non-state conflict between SPLM/A and SSDF is first included in UCDP data in 1991 when violence taking place during that year resulted in over 25 battle-related deaths.
