# Bor Mutiny (1983)

URL: https://allhistories.com/south-sudan/timeline/1983-bor-mutiny
Location: Bor, Jonglei
Themes: battle

By early 1983 the settlement created by the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement was collapsing. President Gaafar Nimeiry was eroding southern autonomy, oil had been found in the Bentiu area, and Khartoum planned to transfer the former Anyanya fighters absorbed into the army, among them Battalions 104 and 105, away from the South to garrisons in the north. On 16 May 1983 government troops attacked the barracks of Battalion 105 at Bor after its men, commanded by Major Kerubino Kuanyin Bol, refused to obey the transfer order. The mutineers fought back and then withdrew into the bush; Battalion 104 under William Nyuon Bany at Ayod and Waat followed. Colonel John Garang, a Dinka officer from Bor who had been sent to the area, joined the rebels, and over the following weeks the mutineers and thousands of recruits marched east to bases in Ethiopia. Southern nationalists date the start of the Second Sudanese Civil War to the Bor mutiny, and 16 May is commemorated in South Sudan as SPLA Day. The war it began lasted until 2005 and is estimated to have cost around two million lives, more than any other conflict in Africa of its time. At this point in the timeline (16 May 1983), the President of the Sudan was Gaafar Nimeiry (12 October 1971 – 6 April 1985). Government: the Prime Minister of Sudan was Gaafar Nimeiry (10 September 1977 – 6 April 1985). In the South: the President of the High Executive Council of the Southern Region was Joseph James Tombura (23 June 1982 – 5 June 1983).

## Why it matters
The Bor mutiny ended eleven years of peace and launched the 22-year war that eventually produced South Sudan's independence.

Ruler at the Time: [Gaafar Nimeiry](https://allhistories.com/south-sudan/rulers/gaafar-nimeiry)

Prime Minister of Sudan: Gaafar Nimeiry (Military / Sudanese Socialist Union)
President of the High Executive Council of the Southern Region: Joseph James Tombura (SSU)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Kerubino Kuanyin Bol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerubino_Kuanyin_Bol)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Second Sudanese Civil War](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Second+Sudanese+Civil+War)
- [Wikipedia — Second Sudanese Civil War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sudanese_Civil_War)
- [BBC News — South Sudan profile and timeline](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14019202)