CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile

2011–2020 insurgency in southern Sudan

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ1795374 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile was an armed conflict and insurgency in the Sudanese states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile (known as the Two Areas) between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement–North (SPLM-N), a northern offshoot of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in now neighbouring South Sudan. After some years of relative calm following the 2005 agreement which ended the Second Sudanese Civil War between the Sudanese government and SPLM rebels, fighting broke out again in the lead-up to South Sudan's independence on 9 July 2011, starting in South Kordofan on 5 June and spreading to the neighboring Blue Nile state in September. SPLM-N, splitting from newly independent SPLM, took up arms against the retained inclusion of the two southern states in Sudan with no popular consultation and against the lack of democratic elections. The conflict is intertwined with the War in Darfur, since in November 2011 SPLM-N established a loose alliance with Darfuri rebels, called Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF).

As of October 2014, some two million people have been affected by the conflict, with more than 500,000 having been displaced and about 250,000 of them fleeing to South Sudan and Ethiopia. In January 2015, fighting intensified as Omar al-Bashir's government tried to regain control of rebel-held territory ahead of April 2015 general elections.

With the overthrow of al-Bashir in April 2019 following months of protests, the SRF announced a three-month ceasefire, hoping to facilitate a Sudanese transition to democracy. This led to the beginning of peace negotiations between the rebels and the new interim government. The Sudanese peace process was formalised with the August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, signed by military and civilian representatives during the Sudanese Revolution, that mandates that a peace agreement be made in South Kordofan and Blue Nile (and in Darfur) within the first six months of the 39-month transition period to democratic civilian government.

On 31 August 2020, a comprehensive peace agreement was signed in Juba, South Sudan, between the Sudan's transitional government and the Sudan Revolutionary Front.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile” is 2011–2020 insurgency in southern Sudan. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Sudanese, conflict and South, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2005, 2011, 2014, 2015—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Sudanese, conflict and South is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “2011–2020 insurgency in southern Sudan” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1795374. Authority coordinates are 11.130, 29.880. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2005, 2011, 2014 and 2015.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile primary sources, Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile archive and Sudanese research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile” 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.