South Sudan People's Defence Forces
armed forces of South Sudan, formerly Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) , founded 1983 as a guerrilla force
The South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF), formerly the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), also called Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M), is the military force of South Sudan. The SPLA was founded as a guerrilla movement against the government of Sudan in 1983 and was a key participant of the Second Sudanese Civil War and the subsequent independence of South Sudan. It was led by John Garang, who died in 2005 and was succeeded by Salva Kiir. As of 2010, the SPLA was divided into divisions of 10,000–14,000 soldiers.
Following the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, the last remaining large and well-equipped militia, the South Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF), under General Paulino Matiep, signed an agreement with Kiir known as the Juba Declaration, which amalgamated the two forces under the SPLA banner.
Following South Sudan's independence in 2011, Kiir became President and the SPLA became the new republic's regular army. In May 2017 there was a restructure and the SPLA took on the name of South Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF), with another change in September 2018 to South Sudan People's Defence Forces. As of 2018, the army was estimated to have 185,000 soldiers as well as an unknown number of personnel in the small South Sudan Air Force. As of 2019, the SSPDF comprised the Ground Force, Air Force, Air Defence Forces and Presidential Guard.
History
1983: Inception
On 16 May 1983 105 Battalion launched a mutiny in Malual-Chaat barrack, Bor against the Sudanese army which later inspired a number of mutinies in the southern region including those at Ayod, Pochalla, and Pibor.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “South Sudan People's Defence Forces” is armed forces of South Sudan, formerly Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) , founded 1983 as a guerrilla force. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through South, Sudan and People's, not as a finished interpretation.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q912908. VIAF identifies the subject as 141730454. The Library of Congress control number is no96062680. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1983, 2005, 2010 and 2011.
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This entry incorporates text from “South Sudan People's Defence Forces” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.