David de Bion

Splm / Spla David de Bion

SPLM/SPLA: History of Liberation is short and an insightful account of what had exactly happened, and why it happened, in the Old Sudan between Arab Sudanese in the North and African Sudanese in South leading to the breaking up of the country into two - Sudan and South Sudan. It is an account of all political and military events, from 1983 to 2005, whether it was bad or good, sad or happy, every single event is narrated here in its lucidity without adding a slice of onion. The book began by digging out all the underlying and immediate causes of the war in 1983. It described how the SPLA/M was founded and organized as a national liberation movement, from the nucleus army of 1226 soldiers in 1983, to the time it became a gallant army of 60,000 soldiers in 1989, liberating half of South Sudan, before it was defeated again by Sudan army and chased to Uganda border in 1992, to the time it regained momentum of war and pushed back Sudan army again in 1995. It described how SPLA/M had been playing cat and mouse game with the Sudan army for 21 years. It is the overview of major campaigns, operations and battles fought between the two, mentioning some of the commanders and officers and tactics, which were involved in the war that started as civil war, but later redefined by warring parties oppositely, Sudan army redefined as eschatological war in 1989, and SPLA as secessionist war in 1994. Although the SPLM/A did not win the war outright in the battlefields, it, however, kept the pressure on Sudan Government in frontlines until the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed in 2005, guaranteeing the Right to Self-determination (RSD) for the people of Southern Sudan . With brandishing of bayonets on their AK 47 rifles, SPLA soldiers forced Sudan to accept the separation vote in a referendum in January 2011, in which South Sudan was declared an independent country on 9 July 2011