The Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile was an armed conflict in the Sudanese southern states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile between the Sudanese Army (SAF) and Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), a northern affiliate of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in South Sudan. After some years of relative calm following the 2005 agreement which ended the second Sudanese civil war between the Sudanese government and SPLM rebels, fighting broke out again in the lead-up to South Sudan independence on 9 July 2011, starting in South Kordofan on 5 June and spreading to the neighboring Blue Nile state in September. SPLM-N, splitting from newly independent SPLM, took up arms against the inclusion of the two southern states in Sudan with no popular consultation and against the lack of democratic elections. The conflict is intertwined with the War in Darfur, since in November 2011 SPLM-N established a loose alliance with Darfuri rebels, called Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF).
As of October 2014, some two million people have been affected by the conflict, with more than 500,000 having been displaced and about 250,000 of them fleeing to South Sudan and Ethiopia. In January 2015, fighting intensified as Omar al-Bashir's government tried to regain control of rebel-held territory ahead of April 2015 general elections.
With the overthrow of al-Bashir in April 2019 following months of protests, the SRF announced a three-month ceasefire, hoping to facilitate a Sudanese transition to democracy. This led to the beginning of peace negotiations between the rebels and the new interim government. The Sudanese peace process was formalised with the August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, signed by military and civilian representatives during the Sudanese Revolution, that mandates that a peace agreement be made in South Kordofan and Blue Nile (and in Darfur) within the first six months of the 39-month transition period to democratic civilian government.
On 31 August 2020, a comprehensive peace agreement was signed in Juba, South Sudan, between the Sudan's transitional government and the Sudan Revolutionary Front. The Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu and Sudan Liberation Movement/Army led by Abdul Wahid al Nur refused to sign the agreement.
An agreement was reached between the transitional government and the SPLM-North al-Hilu rebel faction on 3 September 2020 in Addis Ababa to separate religion and state and not discriminate against anyone's ethnicity in order to secure the equal treatment of all citizens of Sudan. The declaration of principles stated that “Sudan is a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural society. Full recognition and accommodation of these diversities must be affirmed. (...) The state shall not establish an official religion. No citizen shall be discriminated against based on their religion.”
Background
Although South Kordofan and Blue Nile are north of the international border separating Sudan and South Sudan, many of their residents (particularly in the Nuba Mountains) identify with the South. Many residents fought on the side of southern rebels during the long civil war.
South Kordofan and Blue Nile were not allowed to participate in the January 2011 referendum to create South Sudan, and the "popular consultation" process they were promised also failed to take place.
According to satellite imagery, during early spring 2011, Sudan elevated dirt roads needed for tank transportation in the areas they are not traditionally elevated, and in March 2011 it started deploying police and military installations in the area.
May 2011 Abyei conflict
In May 2011, ahead of South Sudan's scheduled independence, tensions rose around the status of the Abyei Area, an oil-rich region that was statutorily part of both South Kordofan and Northern Bahr el Ghazal states. As South Kordofan was slated to remain with the North while Northern Bahr el Ghazal was seceding together with the rest of what was then Southern Sudan Autonomous Region, the status of Abyei was unclear, and both Khartoum and Juba claimed the area as their own.
On 19 May 2011, militants reportedly affiliated with the Sudan People's Liberation Army attacked a convoy of mixed Sudanese Army and UNMIS vehicles 10 km north of Abyei town as they withdrew from the area's administrative centre, drawing sharp condemnation from both the Sudanese government and the United Nations.