ChRonoloGy 319Sudanese political movement in exile formed, the Sudan
African Closed Districts National Union (later the Sudan
African National Union). The first civil war begins.
1963 Anyanya emerges as an organized guerrilla force in the
south.
1964 The government expels all foreign missionaries working
in the south. Demonstrations and riots against Abboud’s
military government erupt across Khartoum. ‘October
Revolution’. Sirr al-Khatim al-Khalifa becomes Prime
Minister.
1965 The Round Table Conference between government and
southerners in Khartoum is held to solve the ‘Southern
Problem’ but fails to reach any agreement on the
constitutional status of the south. The Umma party
wins Sudan’s second election since independence and
Muhammed Ahmed Mahjoub becomes Prime Minister of
a four-party coalition government. The army carries out
massacres in Juba and Wau.
1966–68 A succession of three coalition governments in the spacec
of three years
1967 Following the Six Day Arab–Israeli war Sudan breaks off
diplomatic relations with the US.
1969 Jaafar Nimeiri, leading the socialist-leaning Free Officers,
seizes power in a military coup and establishes a
Revolutionary Command Council, which has close ties to
the Sudanese Communist Party.
1970 The Ansar, led by Imam al-Mahdi, stage a revolt from
Aba Island, which is crushed by the army. In the south
Joseph Lagu unites the Anyanya under his command and
supplants the exiled politicians as leader of the movement,
now renamed the Southern Sudanese Liberation
Movement, with Israeli and Ugandan support. Nimeiri
nationalizes banks and a number of businesses.
1971 Tensions rise between Nimeiri and the SCP, prompting
Hashem al-Atta to stage a communist-backed coup;
the coup is quashed and its leaders executed. Nimeiri
abolishes the multi-party system and makes the Sudan
Socialist Union the sole permitted political organization in
The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors
(www.riftvalley.net).