Active 2002–present | Area of operations Darfur, Sudan | |
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Leaders Minni Minnawi - SLM (Minnawi)
Abdul Wahid al Nur - SLM (al-Nur) Part of Sudan Revolutionary Front | ||
The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (Arabic: حركة تحرير السودان Ḥarakat Taḥrīr Al-Sūdān; abbreviated SLM, SLA or SLM/A) is a Sudanese rebel group active in Darfur, Sudan. It was founded as the Darfur Liberation Front by members of three indigenous ethnic groups in Darfur, the Fur, the Zaghawa and the Masalit among whom were the leaders Abdul Wahid al Nur of the Fur and Minni Minnawi of the Zaghawa.
Contents
Formation
General Omar al-Tsim, and the National Islamic Front headed by Dr. Hassan al-Turabi, overthrew the Sudanese government led by Ahmed al-Mirghani in 1989. A large section of the population in Darfur, particularly the non-Arab ethnicities in the region, became increasingly marginalized. These feelings were crystallized by the publication in 2000 of The Black Book, that detailed the structural inequity in the Sudan, which denies non-Arabs equal justice and power sharing. In 2002 Abdul Wahid al Nur, a lawyer, Ahmad Abdel Shafi Bassey, an education student, and a third man founded the Darfur Liberation Front which subsequently evolved into the Sudan Liberation Movement, and claimed to represent all of the oppressed in the Sudan.
Main factions
In 2006, the Sudan Liberation Movement split into two main factions, divided on the issue of the Darfur Peace Agreement: