Pendulum Swings: The Rise and Fall of Insurgent Militias in South Sudan (HSBA Issue Brief 22)
Armed groups opposed to the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) have been a feature of the landscape in South Sudan since the civil war era, in which the SPLA’s hegemony was under constant challenge. Other armed groups competed with the mainstream SPLA for territorial control and opposing visions and objectives. Khartoum’s support to anti-SPLA militias was a key government strategy in the later stages of the war.
In the post-war period, Southern militia activity has waxed and waned. When the Small Arms Survey last examined them in depth, in November 2011, many groups were going through realignments. Key commanders had either signed agreements with the Government of the Republic of South Sudan (GRSS) and were negotiating the terms of integration for their forces, or had been killed or were under house arrest. Only three sets of forces—those led by former commanders of Peter Gadet, as well as the Shilluk commanders Alyuak Ogot Akol and Johnson Olony—were still active.1 George Athor’s rebellion was dormant but his forces still posed a threat.
By mid-2013, a number of new developments had occurred. David Yau Yau, who signed an agreement with Juba in June 2011, re-defected the following year and significantly expanded his new insurgency. A number of Gadet’s commanders fought on until they accepted amnesty in April 2013. Athor was killed in December 2012, and most of his forces handed themselves over for integration into the SPLA. Other militias moved northwards, became embroiled in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile conflicts, and some returned to integrate. Gordon Kong’s South Sudan Defense Force (SSDF) and affiliated militias remained in armed opposition, as did smaller factions, but did not pose significant threats.
Pendulum Swings: The Rise and Fall of Insurgent Militias in South Sudan reviews Southern insurgent activities in 2012–13, focusing on groups’ strength, goals, achievements, and disposition following a renewed offer of amnesty to the rebels from GRSS President Salva Kiir in April 2013.
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