# Nuba Mountains Ceasefire (2002)

URL: https://allhistories.com/south-sudan/timeline/2002-nuba-mountains-ceasefire
Location: Bürgenstock, Switzerland
Themes: main-event

Shortly before the attacks of 11 September 2001, President George W. Bush appointed former Senator John Danforth as special envoy for peace in Sudan, under pressure from American churches and campaigners concerned about slavery and religious persecution. Danforth proposed four 'tests' of the parties' commitment: a ceasefire in the Nuba Mountains, 'zones of tranquillity' for vaccination, an end to attacks on civilians, and a commission on slavery and abductions. Meeting at Bürgenstock in Switzerland, with Swiss and US mediation, the government and the SPLM signed on 19 January 2002 a ceasefire agreement for the Nuba Mountains. An international Joint Military Commission, led by Norway, was deployed to monitor it, and humanitarian access to the long-isolated SPLA areas of the mountains followed. Further US-backed agreements on the protection of civilians and an investigation of slavery came in 2002. The Nuba ceasefire was the first durable truce of the Second Civil War and built confidence for the IGAD negotiations. It brought the United States, together with the United Kingdom and Norway, into the centre of the peace process, where it remained through the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. At this point in the timeline (19 January 2002), the President of the Sudan was Omar al-Bashir (16 October 1993 – 11 April 2019 (over Southern Sudan until 9 July 2011)). In the South: the Chairman and Commander-in-Chief of the SPLM/A was John Garang (1983 – 30 July 2005).

## Why it matters
The Nuba ceasefire was the first lasting truce of the war and brought sustained US diplomacy into the peace process.

Ruler at the Time: [Omar al-Bashir](https://allhistories.com/south-sudan/rulers/omar-al-bashir)

Chairman and Commander-in-Chief of the SPLM/A: John Garang (SPLM)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — John Danforth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Danforth)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Nuba Mountains ceasefire](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Nuba+Mountains+ceasefire)
- [Wikipedia — Nuba Mountains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuba_Mountains)
- [International Crisis Group — Sudan](https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/horn-africa/sudan)
- [Wikipedia — Second Sudanese Civil War (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sudanese_Civil_War)