Sudan internal conflict

	Date: 19 May 2011 – ongoing (2 years, 1 month and 1 week)

Belligerents
1. Sudan People's Armed Forces 2.Anti-SPLA Forces	1. Sudan Revolutionary Front 2.Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North 3.Justice and Equality Movement 4.Sudan Liberation Army Supported by: 1. Ethiopia (alleged)

Commanders and leaders
1.Omar al Bashir 2.Ibrahim Balandiya	1.Aabdel aziz-Hilu 2.Malik Agar 3.Khalil ibrahim
Strength
200,000		45,000 SPLM-N 35,000 JEM

Casualties and losses
4,109-5,000 killed 479-Thousands wounded 179 confirmed captured 405 vehicles destroyed 746	704 rebels killed

1,500 killed overall (by September 2011; UN claim) 643 killed overall (by October 2012; government claim)

The Sudan internal conflict is an ongoing conflict in the early 2010s between the Army of Sudan and the Sudan Revolutionary Front, particularly the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), a northern affiliate of the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movementin South Sudan. The conflict started as a dispute over the oil-rich region of Abyei in the months leading up to South Sudanese independence, though it is also related to the nominally resolved war in Darfur. The conflict is estimated to affect a total of 1.4 million people, and to have displaced over 200,000 people.

In early September 2011, Sudanese forces clashed with the SPLM-N in Blue Nile state, seizing control of the state capital of Ad-Damazinand ousting Governor Malik Agar, the leader of the SPLM-N's Blue Nile branch. Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) militants allied with the SPLM-N marched into the state of North Kordofan in December 2011, sparking confrontations with the Sudanese military that led to the death of the JEM's leader, Khalil Ibrahim. The spread of the conflict has sparked concerns that the fighting could lead to a third Sudanese civil war.

Background

Although South Kordofan is north of the international border separating Sudan and South Sudan, many of its residents (particularly in theNuba Mountains) identify with the South. Many residents fought on the side of southern rebels during the long civil war.

South Kordofan was 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.

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, in May 2011 ahead of South Sudan's scheduled independence. 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, the status of Abyei was unclear, and both Khartoum and Juba claimed the area as their own.

The conflict is widely viewed as connected to the 2012 South Sudan–Sudan border conflict.