CHRONOLOGY OF IMPORTANT EVENTS IN SOUTH SUDAN NATION:

·        1822     North Sudan falls under Turko-Egyptian rule. Mohamed Ali of Turkey wanted Negro slaves to strengthen his army. Abortive attempts to extend rule over South Sudan .

·        1839     Captain Salim penetrates the Sudd and reaches Gondokoro, near Juba. The start of slave raids by European merchants and their armed Gellaba Arab servants.

·        1881     Unsuccessful attempts to conquer the South Sudan by the Mahdists.

·        1899     South Sudan and North under British and Egyptian Condominium rule.

·        1901     The Nuer and Azande wage armed resistance against colonial rule, killing British officers and soldiers and the Governor of Bahr el Ghazal .

·        1902     Three southern provinces and six northern treated as separate and distinct.

·        1918     Sunday becomes official day of worship in South Sudan, replacing Friday, which was introduced by Moslem Gellaba slave raiders.                   

·        1924     Abortive uprising against Condominium rule led by a South Sudan national, Ali Abdel Latif, probably a descendent of slaves.

·        1930     Declaration of South Sudan Policy, South Sudan as culturally and racially distinct, would eventually develop as a separate territorial and political entity or be integrated into the British East Africa.

·        1940     Complete elimination of Arab and Moslem influence in South Sudan.

·        1946     Britain reverses the Southern Policy after agitation against it by the North. Protests against reversal by British administrators in the South.    

·        1947     The Juba Conference held to allay the fears of its administrators in the South. South Sudanese themselves were betrayed by Britain.

·        1951     Constitutional commission formed with only one South Sudanese representative, who proposes a federal arrangement between the South and the North. Buth Diu forms the Southern Sudan Party, first ever.

·        1955     Southern Party renamed Liberal Party, holds first Conference in Juba, Stansilaus Paysama as President and Buth Diu as Secretary-General. They demand for Federation for South Sudan.

·        1955     The trial of Elia Kuze, the Liberal Member of Parliament, first South Sudan nationalist who led resistance against Gellaba rule in Yambio. The Azande demanded that South Sudan not be ruled by or be dominated by the "false so-called Northern brothers." Bloody riots erupts in Nzara.

·        1955     Torit Revolt, first armed resistance in South Sudan against the Gellaba North rule on 18 August. Fearing massacre of South Sudanese by Northern soldiers being flown to the South and worried about their fate by the forced transfer to the North, the Equatorial (Southern) corps mutinied, killing their Gellaba officers. This  sparked armed nationalist uprising throughout the Southern region until 1972.

·        1956     Sudan gains independence but Federation rejected by the Northerners.

·        1957     Government takes over mission schools in the South Sudan .

·        1958     Power handed to General Abboud by Premier Abdalla Khalil; Forced Islamization and Arabization of South Sudan nationals.

·        1960     Imposition of Mohammedan Friday as day of rest instead of Sunday in South. Student strikes against this policy in the South.
             South Sudan nationalists in exile form the Sudan African Closed Districts National Union(SACDNU), later to become SANU.

·        1962     Schools in South Sudan strike against government policies and expulsion of Christian missionaries from the South for alleged incitement of South Sudanese against Arabization and Islamization.

·        1963     Start of Anya-Nya movement, the first liberation army of South Sudan, war against Northern Arabs and independence of the South.

·        1964     Abboud military government is overthrown by civilians in the North.
             December 19: First bloody clash in Khartoum between Southerners and Northerners after first ever Southern Minister of Interior, Clement Mboro, fails to return from a much publicized tour to war-ravaged South Sudan; Southerners thought he was killed by the Gellaba.

·        1965    Round Table Conference in Khartoum between South and North to solve the Southern Problem ends in failure. Start of Gellaba Arab massacres of innocent South Sudanese civilians in Juba, Wau and other towns. 

·        1968    Assassination of William Deng by government troops near Rumbek.

·        1969     Nimeriy's Military coup; declares Regional Autonomy for the South.

·        1972     Addis Ababa Accord between the Anya Nya and Sudan Government.

·        1975     Revolts by South Sudanese soldiers in Akobo and other barracks, protesting their transfer to the North, in violation of Addis Ababa Agreement. 

·        1976     Capt. Aguet led a mutiny in Wau, fled into exile but was lured back by fellow Southerners and then shot.

·        1977     National Reconciliation between Nimeriy and Saddiq and Moslem Brotherhood of Turabi, both Arab Islamists leaders were out to dismantle the few privileges that the Addis Ababa Agreement had accorded the Southerners. 

·        1978     Gen. Lagu deposes Abel Alier as President of High Executive Council in popular "wind of change" elections.

·        1980     Nimeriy decrees changes in South Sudan borders after discovery of huge oil deposits in Bentiu, South Sudan.
             Gen. Lagu unconstitutionally removed as President in the South, at instigations of Abel Alier.

·        1981     South protest location of oil refineries in Arab North.
            Alier returned to Presidency in South, but was soon to be dismissed from power by President Nimeriy.
            Anya-Nya II resurgence, vows to fight for South Sudan Independence.

·        1983     May: Mutiny by Southern soldiers in Bor and Pibor, their commanders Kerubino and William Nyon, accused of financial theft.                                 
             John Garang, in Bor as government mediator, flees with mutineers. SPLA/SPLM formation with the mutineers and Anya Nya II. Nimeriy decrees Redivision of the South(known as KOKORA), in response to popular demands by mostly Equatorians against intolerable Dinka tribal domination and misrule.
            September: Nimeriy arbitrarily imposes Sharia Law in the Sudan. Those against Kokora and Sharia Law fled to join SPLA.

·        1984     Colonel Garang, with Mengistu's support, emerges as undisputed leader of SPLA/M after bloody power struggle with the unprecedented elimination and killings of Akot Atem and Gai Tut, former leaders of Anya-Nya II. Many opponents and especially those agitating for liberation of an independent South Sudan nation, will subsequently be incarcerated or killed by the SPLA.
            Garang announces that SPLA will fight for a "United, Secular Sudan", while majority of Southerners wanted Independence of South Sudan

·        1985     Nimeriy overthrown

·        1989     Beshir and Turabi Arabist Islamist regime assumes power in Sudan; support in war from China, Iran.  

·        1991     Mengistu, SPLA Garang's biggest mentor, overthrown in Ethiopia with repercussions. SPLA splits; Riek and Lam Akol accuses Garang of being dictatorial and undemocratic; Garang and Riek each leading opposing ethnic and worst internecine war between Dinka and  Nuer; further fragmentation of Riek/Lam's SPLA-Nassir faction.

·        1995     North Arab and SPLA opponents join forces in the NDA (National Democratic Alliance). 

·        1997     April Agreement between Riek and Beshir-Turabi; Riek offered unworkable government promise of self-determination. Nuer become alarmed at government's intention to redeploy Gellaba troops in formerly liberated Nuer regions, rapid extraction of oil deposits in Western Upper Nile, and government's malicious instigation of political and armed conflicts between Nuer and Dinka SSDF Commanders

·        1998     Nuer warlord and government proxy, Paulino Matip embarks on campaign to drive civilian population in Western Upper Nile for extension of pipeline south.
            Completion of construction of the 1,110 km long pipeline to take southern oil north; Chinese troops building pipeline wreck havoc in South Sudan by assisting Gellaba Arabs in rapings and ethnic cleansing.
             Talisman of Canada, buys out Arakis Energy for control of Southern oil.

·        1999     Wunlit Dinka-Nuer convenant signed to bring peace between Dinka and Nuer of West Bank of the Nile .

·        2001     SPLA, signs inexplicable Memorandum of Understanding with Turabi, while himself under house arrest; latest of Garang's signed agreements with all Northern political parties; Turabi hypocritically calls on young Arab Northerners not to go and die in war for Southern Sudan oil.
             June: US House of Representative passes Sudan Peace Act to punish those who trade in blood oil and investing in Sudan.

·        2002     Ceasefire in Nuba Mountains Region.
             Machakos Protocol signed between Gellaba Arab North and SPLA. Talks on-going in Kenya under IGAD. Garang unilaterally concedes to Unity between South and Gellaba Arab North, with referendum, (a second choice), for self-determination if Unity not achieved;                                       
             Garang-Beshir meet.

·        2002     October; Sudan Peace Act signed by US President Bush.

·        2003     February; Fighting erupts in Darfur region between govt. and insurgents.

·        2003     September 25; Security Arrangement Agreement signed.

·        2004     January 7, Naivasha, Kenya: Wealth sharing agreement signed.

·        2004     May 27, Naivasha, Kenya: Power-sharing, the status of Abyei and the administration of Nuba Mts. and Southern Blue Nile protocols agreements signed.

·        2004     July 30, United Nations Security Council passes Resolution 1556, giving Arab Sudan government 30 days in which to disarm Arab militia and restore security in Darfur.

      ·        2005     January 9, Final comprehensive peace agreement signed in Nairobi, Kenya, by Dr. John Garang on behalf of the SPLA/M and Sudan vice president Taha for Arab Sudan.

• 2005, July 30     SPLM/A Leader and First Vice President of Sudan, Dr. John Garang de Mabior died in a helicopter crash between the border of Uganda and Sudan. Garang, who was born in 1945, was finally buried in Juba, on August 6, 2005. Garang is succeeded by his deputy, Salva Kiir Mayardit.

• October 11, 2007  President of Government of South Sudan (GOSS), announced the withdrawal of SPLM from the Government of National Unity with National Congress Party partner of Sudan President Omar Bashier.

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