SUMMARY

The non-state conflict between SPLM/A (Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement/Army) and UNRF II (Uganda National Rescue Front II), was, for a large part, a war-by-proxy between the Governments of Uganda and the Governments of Sudan. Due to the tense nature of inter-state relations, SPLM/A was armed, trained, and allowed to establish bases in Ugandan territory, while UNRF II, as a splinter group of WNBF (West Nile Bank Front) was equipped and organized with the help of the Sudanese Government and allowed bases and safe havens in garrisons controlled by the Sudanese army.

As UNRF IIwas formed in 1996, it kept both the strategies and the goals of WNBF , i.e. cross-border attacks from Sudan into Uganda, through a corridor kept clear from SPLM/A. Fighting took the form of clashes between the two groups in various locations situated alongside the border between the two countries, with the UNRF II almost always fighting alongside WNBF.

For the most part, SPLM/A had the upper hand in the fighting, and, by mid-1997, it managed to recapture Kajo-Keji (the main base and headquarters for both WNBF and UNRF II) in a sustained assault. This attack, combined with a series of later assaults and ambushes on UNRF II positions inflicted significant losses to the Ugandan rebels, destabilizing the group and forcing it to retreat behind Sudanese Army lines. As such, by the end of 1997, the group no longer posed any threat to the SPLM/A.

The non-state conflict between SPLM/A and UNRF II is first included in UCDP data in 1997. At the beginning of March that year an SPLM/A attack on the main UNRF II base at Kajo-Keji resulted in over 25 battle-related deaths.