1965 Juba and Wau massacres
| 1965 Juba and Wau massacres | |
|---|---|
| Location | 4°51′14″N 31°34′57″E / 4.85389°N 31.58250°E and 7°42′00″N 28°00′00″E / 7.70000°N 28.00000°E Juba and Wau, South Sudan |
| Date | July 1965 |
| Target | Non-arabs |
Attack type | |
| Weapons |
|
| Deaths | +3,000 |
| Perpetrators | Sudanese Armed Forces |
The 1965 Juba and Wau massacres are massacres committed by the Sudanese army in Southern Sudan during the First Sudanese Civil War, in the towns of Juba and Wau. The massacres were a part of wider attacks on South Sudanese civilians conducted by the then prime minister Muhammad Ahmad Mahgoub.
Background
The First Sudanese Civil War started on 18 August 1955, when members of the Equatorial corps in Torit mutinied against their northern commanders. The mutiny formed into a secessionist movement called the Anyanya which consisted of the Torit mutineers and southern students. The groups gained ground starting from 1963 lasting all the way to 1969.[1]
The worst atrocities in the Civil War were committed under the civilian elected prime minister Muhammad Ahmad Mahgoub who came to power on 10 June 1965.[2] His war policies were characterized by extremely brutal attacks on southern towns which caused thousands of civilian deaths.[3]
The massacres
The massacre in Juba
On 8 July 1965, soldiers went on rampage in Juba shooting and targeting civilians. The attacks began at 8 o'clock in the morning and carried until the next day.[4] The official explanation, put forward by the Minister of the Interior was that the massacre was prompted by an unsuccessful attack on the Sudanese military headquarters in Juba.[5] These claims were contested by one witness who claimed that the attacks motives stemmed from a quarrel between northern soldiers and southern civilians regarding a prostitute. The dispute ended up in one soldier being stabbed, after which the other soldiers enraged by the stabbing went on a killing spree.[4]
The Juba massacre was marked by extreme violence and witnesses claim that the soldiers were especially targeting non-Arabs.[4] The resulting casualties are uncertain but historian Deng D. Akol Ruay estimated that there were between 1000 and 3000 deaths.[6]
The massacre in Wau
Two days after the start of the Juba massacre on 10 of July a second massacre occurred in Wau.[7] The massacre happened during a wedding, when Sudanese soldiers surrounded the house and began firing in to it. The massacre killed 76 civilians most them being part of the educated southern elites.[8] The government had claimed that the people attending the wedding were Anyanya rebels who fired first at soldiers,[9] but a South Sudanese politician Clement Mboro adamantly denied this, stating that they had all been intellectuals.[2]
Other massacres
Other massacres were also carried in July by Sudanese troops. Kapoeta was attacked on 11 of July killing 1,400 thousand and on 15 June, 76 people were killed in Yei.[10]
Aftermath
The just established Southern Front considered the attack to be an "attempt at killing all the educated South Sudanese in the area". They published a memorandum which urged the government to establish an investigation which would look in to the killings. The memorandum also contested the claim which government had made that the massacre killed around 400 people.[2]
Southern Fronts newspaper The Vigilant published articles on the massacre claiming calling them "barbaric and brutal" and accusing the government of a plot to "depopulate the south". These publications led to The Vigilant being suspended from July 1965 to January 1966.[11]
References
- ^ Leach, Justin (2013). War and politics in Sudan: cultural identities and the challenges of the peace process. London: I. B. Tauris. ISBN 9781780762272. Retrieved 9 March 2026.
- ^ a b c Poggo (2009), p. 85.
- ^ Akol Ruay, Deng D. (1994). The Politics of The Two Sudans: The South and the North 1821–1969. Nordiska Afrikainstituten. pp. 132–133. ISBN 91-7106-344-7.
- ^ a b c Poggo (2009), p. 83.
- ^ "Research from the South Sudan National Archives: Uncovering compensation claims following the 1965 'Juba Massacre' – Rift Valley Institute". Retrieved 9 March 2026.
- ^ Ruay, Deng D. Akol (1994). The politics of two Sudans: the south and the north, 1821-1969. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet. ISBN 91-7106-344-7. Retrieved 9 March 2026.
- ^ Cormack, Zoe (2 January 2017). "The spectacle of death: visibility and concealment at an unfinished memorial in South Sudan". Journal of Eastern African Studies. 11 (1): 3. doi:10.1080/17531055.2017.1288410.
- ^ Poggo (2009), p. 84.
- ^ "Blunder Led to Wedding Massacre, Edition 12". Retrieved 9 March 2026.
- ^ Gray, Richard. "Resistance: The Story of Southern Sudan, Edition 13". Retrieved 9 March 2026.
- ^ Akol, Lam. Southern Sudan: Colonialism, Resistance, and Autonomy. Trenton, NJ [u.a.]: Red Sea Press, 2007. p. 47
Bibliography
- Poggo, Scopas (2009). The First Sudanese Civil War Africans, Arabs, And Israelis In The Southern Sudan, 1955-1972. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230607965.