SUMMARY

SPLM/A have been involved in different types of one-sided violence during it over a 20-year long war against the Government of Sudan (See Government of Sudan - SPLM/A. During the beginning of the 1990s most of the one-sided attacks were against Nuer villages. This was part of the warfare between the SPLM/A led by the Dinka John Garang and the SPLM/A (Nasir) led by the Nuer Riek Machar. These attacks included the killing of men, women, and children, sometimes they were shot, and sometimes they were burned in their huts. At this time the SPLM/A used the tactic of burning of villages several times. Witnesses have said that “When people are perceived to support the other side in the conflict, Garang feels they must be punished. This is why villages are burned." In addition to this the looting was outspread at this time. Most of these attacks took place in the two Southern Sudan states of Upper Nile and Eastern Equatoria. These attacks peaking in 1993 were extremely bloody and in many cases very cruel. Sometimes people were burned alive, wells were destroyed (attributing to the devastating food situation at the time in Southern Sudan) and sometimes women were raped.

The beginning of the 90s was the period when the SPLM/A conducted most of its one-sided attacks. However, one-sided attacks continued throughout the time SPLM/A conducted its warfare against the Government of Sudan. This fighting ended when the SPLM/A and the Government of Sudan signed a Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005. These attacks took place at many different places the vast majority in Southern Sudan but attacks had also been carried out in Darfur and West Kordofan. Southern states that were attacked have been conducted include Upper Nile, Eastern Equatoria, Unity State, Bahr el-Ghazal, and Blue Nile. The purpose of the one-sided attacks has been different on different occasions. As mention above, the bloodiest one-sided campaigns targeted the Nuer and were conducted as warfare against the SPLM/A (Nasir). On other times as on one attack in Kordofan the target was a village inhabited by a group that was seen as more Arab and hence (according to the SPLM/A) in support of the regime in Khartoum. Moreover, often the purpose of the attacks was to loot and many of the attacks on civilians were combined with cattle-rustling. In addition to this civilians were often abducted by the SPLM/A.

SPLM/A first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1989, when the one-sided violence resulted in at least 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in September that year when the group attacked the village of Pugnido and killed at least 120 civilians.