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IT/77, April 9 - April 24, 1970
murder of the black African population of the Southern
Sudan by the Northern Sudanese Arabs.
This state of terrorism is basically due to the joining to-
gether of two peoples who are racially, culturally and in
every other way different into the unitary state of the
Sudan. This has resulted in the extreme persecution of
the minority black African tribes of the Southern Sudan
by the Arabic Northern Sudanese.
Until Independence in late 1955 Britain and Egypt had
jointly ruled the Northern Sudan and the Southern
Sudan, who now prefer to be called the NILESTA TES,
in what came to be known as the Egypto-British Co-
Dominion.
Britain had always treated the two countries as entirely
independent entities, and assumed that at Independence
emergent black east-African nations.
However, because of constant pressure from Egypt, who
threatened to deny Britain the use of the Suez Canal, and
transparently false promises by the Northern Sudanese to
respect the independence of the Southern Sudan, Britain
gave independence to the two countries as the unitary
state of the SUDAN.
In 1958 Military Rule was imposed by the Arabs and the
slaughter of black Africans had begun. . "¦
The appalling incompetence of the British Colonial Serv-
ice in failing to understand the true motives of the Arabs,
and its moral corruption in succumbing to economic
pressure from Egypt has been largely responsible for
the death of over one million black Africans in the Sudan.
It is one of the sickest ironies of history that only a year
The following is a discussion between Graham Scovell,
who taped the story for IT, and 'A Ian' who cannot be
further identified for fear of possible recriminations.
Alan worked for three years as a teacher m a neighbour-
ing country during that time he worked with the contin-
uous stream of refugees from the Nile States. Although
he was living at subsistence level he attempted with some
success to organise a structure that would enable the
refugees to live in a self-sufficient community. Eventually
he accepted an invitation from one of the Nile States'
Freedom Fighters to go with him into South Sudan.
Tlie danger to himself was immense; had he been caugh t
he would either have been executed or taken to Khartoum
to be used for political propaganda purposes - and then i
executed- '
Mass Murder and
Guerrilla Warfare in
the Southern Sudan
ISIIiiiilll
I THIS WOMAN'S HUSBAND WAS KILLED, AND HER VILLAGE DESTROYED BY THE ARAB ARMY FROM THE NORTH SUDAN
THE ANYA-NYA
GRAHAM: Would you explain exactly
what happened when you accepted this
invitation to go into the Nile States.
ALAN: My friends and I went into the
Upper Nile Province of the Nile States so
that 1 could see for myself what was going
early days they were attacking Arab out-
posts with spears and bows & arrows —
but for the last seven years or so the army
has been very well organised as the Anya-
Nya. The discipline is good, and the arms
situation is quite good, with anti-tank &
anti-personnel carrier weapons & mortars.
The ANAF have moved on to open con-
frontation with the Arabs. For example,
in 1958 the Arab authorities sent a fairly
large force down the Nile from Malakal
by steamer - there was a direct battle
on. We met up with a large group of ANY A- which ended in a complete victory for
NYA [the partisan rebels.who are fighting for
the independence of the Southern Sudan]. The
ANYA-NYA NATIONAL ARMED FORC-
ES, ANAF for short, are made up almost
exclusively of Black African tribesmen.
This particular group is made up mainly
of DINKA tribesmen, and we were mov-
ing in the territory of the NUER tribe.
The morale of the soldiers and the people
that I met in the countryside was very high
despite the fact that this was an area of
fairly intense Arab activity.
GRAHAM: What type of warfare are the
ANAF engaged in - is it guerrilla warfare
or direct confrontation?
ALAN: This is a war of national liberation
and as such the ANAF are only interested
in making their territory secure. It certain-
ly started out as guerrilla warfare — in the
the ANAF. About 80% of the Arab force
were killed, but not without considerable
loss on our side. A large number of wom-
en & children were killed at the town of
Fangak as a direct retaliation for this battle
by the returning Arabs.
GRAHAM: It looks as if the type of war-
fare is very different from the usual type
of skirmishes which frequently happen in
the borderlands joining people of different
racial or political groups.
ALAN: Why yes of course! The whole of
the Southern Sudan is involved, not just a
region along the border. There has always
been an element of fanatical Moslems in
the Northern Sudan, as the British found
out during the Mahdi revolution. It is this
element which keeps pressure on the Khar-
toum government to enforce a nominal
acceptance of the Islamic faith on the
black Africans. Generally the Arabs keep
to the towns and try whenever possible to
evade fighting the Anya-nya, which has
emerged as a very effective fighting force.
The Arab army is not particularly efficient
and so they can only make reprisals against
the civilian population. There is no doubt
that there has been murder on a massive
scale in reprisal for ANAF activities. The
Arab method is to surround a village, kill
some of the men & boys, rape the women
<% perhaps abduct the women & children.
They would then burn the village to the
ground.
VITAL STATISTICS
GRAHAM: Have you seen such incidents
yourself or is your information hearsay?
ALAN: No, it's not hearsay at all. I have
seen this sort of incident many times. I
went through areas which were existing
normally, and a few weeks later when I
came back through that area the village
had been burnt down. This photograph
shows a native woman standing in the
rubble of her home. She returned with
us from the bush, where we had met her.
She has just found her husband dead in
the rubble. Fortunately the custom of
this particular tribe is that she will marry
the eldest eligible son of her husband's
family so that her material welfare and
that of her children, will be taken care of.
The other photograph was taken the next
day when some of the menfolk had return-
ed to the village after escaping into the
bush at the time of the raid. I have another
photograph which was taken three months
later which shows the village completely
rebuilt as if nothing had ever happened.
In fact some of these villages are destroyed
and rebuilt so many times that the Arabs
have finally given up and don't bother the
villagers again. The Nilean is not involved
with propaganda and does not enlarge on
these atrocities. They keep good records of
the numbers killed or abducted. For
example, 187 civilians were killed and
570 kidnapped by the Arab troops at
Kajo-Kaji Yei District between February
& September in 1968. In February 1968
2 companies of Arab troops from their
Mundri Base went to a Mom village and
abducted 22 men, women & children,
taking them back to their base. On the
way, one man, a tailor, and his wife
escaped and told of the rape of the
young girls, and the torture & general
brutality of the Arabs against the male
captives.
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