The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) is a rebel group that was formed in 1983. It has since fought against the governments of Gaafar Nimeiry, Sadiq al-Mahdi and President Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir. Its leader, John Garang, a Dinka, holds a doctorate and received military training in the USA. The SPLA is the military wing of the SPLM, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement.

The SPLA is largely southern-based, non-Arabic and non-Muslim, in contrast to the predominantly Muslim and Arab north. Its declared aims is to establish a secular and democratic Sudan. While the war in southern Sudan has been largely described in religious and ethnic terms, it is also a struggle for control of the oil resources located in the south.

In the early 1990s the SPLA divided into three factions: the SPLA Torit faction led by John Garang that has been the most active militarily; Carabino Kuany Bol's SPLA Bahr-al-Ghazal faction; and the South Sudan Independence Movement led by Rick Machar. These internal divisions have hamped negotiations with the government. The South Sudan Independence Movement/Army and several smaller factions signed a separate peace agreement with Khartoum in April 1997 and formed the United Democratic Salvation Front (UDSF).

The SPLA remains the major southern group negotiating for an end to the southern war, though the fighting in Darfur threatens the precarious peace.

External links

• Federation of American Scientists (http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/spla.htm) page
• State Department archive (http://www.state.gov/www/issues/relief/sudanproject.html) on Sudan Project before January 2001
• Description of SPLA/M (http://www.sudanupdate.org/WHOSWHO/SPLAM.HTM) from pro-rebel bias. [1] (http://www.mediamonitors.net/espac25.html)