Army of Peace

The Army of Peace (جيش السلام) was a large Fertit militia in Western Bahr el Ghazal during the Second Sudanese Civil War. Although initially armed by the Sudanese government in order to fight against South Sudanese separatists, the Army of Peace became especially notorious for massacring Dinka civilians. These mass killings grew so excessive that the group even came into violent conflicts with other pro-government forces. The militia was mostly disbanded in 1988, though a rump faction of the group continued to be active until it was absorbed into the Popular Defence Forces in late 1989.

History
The Army of Peace was founded by the Sudanese government in 1986, and led by Captain Raphael Kitang, a retired army officer. Though recruited from Fertit that lived in and around Wau, Fertit tribal leaders vehemently opposed the formation of the Army of Peace and the arming of civilians in general. The Army of Peace initially operated autonomous and exclusively in the surroundings of Wau, where it defended local villages from insurgents from 1986 to early 1987. Already at an very early stage, however, the militia became notorious for many human rights violations such as the assassination of critical Fertit and Dinka tribal leaders as well as politicians, and most notably the indiscriminate killing and torture of Dinka civilians, including the murder of children and pregnant women.

The Army of Peace drastically expanded its operations after the arrival of Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) reinforcements in July 1987. These reinforcements included the infamous 242 Battalion (also known as "Hun" or "Genghis Khan Battalion") and were led by Maj-Gen Abu Gurun Abdullah Abu Gurun, nicknamed "Hitler" due to his brutality. Receiving better weaponry including tanks, the militia then began to act as auxiliary force to the SAF as new counter-insurgeny operations were launched. In August of that year, the group as well as the Sudanese army massacred hundreds of Dinka in Wau, causing the local Dinka-dominated Wau Police and Wildlife Forces to take up arms in order to defend the civilian population. The following intra-government fighting was extremely brutal and hundreds were killed. Dinka members of the police and Wildlife Forces formed death squads to retaliate against the militia, while the Army of Peace in return attacked the police headquarters with tanks in August. Meanwhile, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) mostly evicted the Fertit militia from the rural areas around Wau. Only with Abu Gurun's depature in November did the situation in Wau calm down. With the support of the newly appointed county commissioner Lawrence Lual Lual, local Fertit community leaders managed to negotiate a peace agreement, according to which members of the Army of Peace received an amnesty and were reaccepted into the community, while administrative posts in Wau were to be equally distributed between Dinka and Fertit. Most of the militia subsequently demobilized in July 1988, though a rump faction remained active and continued to fight alongside the SAF until it was integrated into the Popular Defence Forces in December 1989.