The Sudan Revolutionary Front (), or the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF), was an alliance between

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

ese factions that was created in opposition to the government of President

Omar al-Bashir Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir (born 1 January 1944) is a Sudanese former military officer and politician who served as Head of state of Sudan, Sudan's head of state under various titles from 1989 until 2019, when he was deposed in 2019 Sudanese c ...

. It was declared on 12 November 2011, following several months of support by

Darfur Darfur ( ; ) is a region of western Sudan. ''Dār'' is an Arabic word meaning "home f – the region was named Dardaju () while ruled by the Daju, who migrated from Meroë , and it was renamed Dartunjur () when the Tunjur ruled the area. ...

i rebel groups for the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North in the conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile. The alliance was dissolved since the start of the

Sudanese civil war (2023–present) A civil war began on 15 April 2023 between two rival factions of the military government of Sudan. The conflict involves the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), c ...

, with some factions joining the Sudanese Armed Forces and others siding with the

Rapid Support Forces The Rapid Support Forces (RSF; ) is a paramilitary force formerly operated by the government of Sudan. The RSF grew out of, and is primarily composed of, the Janjaweed militias which previously fought on behalf of the Sudanese government. RSF ...

Composition

The alliance created in November 2011 aimed to bring together the two main factions of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, as well as the other major rebel group in Darfur, the Justice and Equality Movement, with rebels in

South Kordofan South Kordofan ( ') is one of the 18 States of Sudan, wilayat or states of Sudan. It has an area of 158,355 km2 and an estimated population of approximately 2,107,623 people (2018 est). Kaduqli is the capital of the state. It is centered on t ...

and

Blue Nile The Blue Nile is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. It travels for approximately through Ethiopia and Sudan. Along with the White Nile, it is one of the two major Tributary, tributaries of the Nile and supplies about 85.6% of the wa ...

states. The declaration of the SRF's formation was delayed until a disagreement between JEM and the other factions on the role of

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

in a post-revolutionary federal government was resolved. The signers for each group were Yasir Arman for the SPLM-N, Ahmed Tugud for the JEM, Abul Gassim Al-Haj for the SLM-al-Nur, and Al-Rayah Mahmoud for the SLM-Minnawi.

Areas of operation

Yasir Arman, the secretary-general of the SPLM-N and a prominent member of the SRF's high political committee, said shortly after the SRF's formation that "all Sudan was a theatre for operations, including Khartoum". , the JEM and both SLM factions were still based in the region of Darfur, and the SPLM-N had not expanded its fight against the Sudanese government north of Blue Nile and South Kordofan. In late December 2011, JEM fighters advanced into North Kordofan with the stated intention of ousting President

from power, though they suffered a setback when their leader, Khalil Ibrahim, was

killed in action Killed in action (KIA) is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their personnel at the hands of enemy or hostile forces at the moment of action. The United States Department of Defense, for example, ...

in the state. Around the time of the SRF's formation in November 2011, the Sudanese government accused neighbouring

South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...

of supporting the rebel groups. In addition to bombing South Sudanese infrastructure and camps, South Sudanese authorities stated that Sudan had backed armed opposition factions within South Sudan.

Sudanese peace process

The August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration, signed by military and civilian representatives during the 2018–19 Sudanese Revolution, requires that a peace agreement for resolving the

War in Darfur The War in Darfur, also nicknamed the Land Cruiser War, was a major armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equalit ...

and the

Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile 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 (state), Blue Nile (known as the Two Areas) between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan Pe ...

be made within the first six months of the 39-month transition period to democratic civilian government. As part of the resulting Sudanese peace process, on 21 October 2019, el-Hadi Idris, on behalf of the SRF, and Hemetti, on behalf of the Sovereignty Council (the collective head of state), signed a political agreement (co-signed by a South Sudanese mediator) including a renewed

ceasefire A ceasefire (also known as a truce), also spelled cease-fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions often due to mediation by a third party. Ceasefires may b ...

, the delivering of humanitarian assistance by government agencies to areas under conflict, and commitment to negotiate further. On 31 August 2020, a peace agreement was signed between the Sudanese authorities and rebel factions led by Gibril Ibrahim, Minni Minnawi, el-Hadi Idris and

Malik Agar Malik Agar (; born Nganyofa Agar Eyre Nganyofa) is a Sudanese politician and former insurgent leader who was active in the insurgency in Blue Nile state. Since 2023, he has been the deputy chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, Sud ...

to end armed hostilities. Under the terms of the agreement, the factions that signed will be entitled to three seats on the sovereignty council, a total of five ministers in the transitional cabinet and a quarter of seats in the transitional legislature. At a regional level, signatories will be entitled between 30 and 40% of the seats on transitional legislatures of their home states or regions.

Sudanese civil war

In 2025, the group expelled the United Popular Front (UPF) as a member after the latter accused the alliance of being unduly influenced by the

. The UPF itself had sided with the Sudanese Armed Forces at the beginning of the war in 2023.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite web , last1 = FFC , last2 = TMC , last3= IDEA , last4 = Reeves , first4 = Eric , author1-link = Forces of Freedom and Change , author2-link = Transitional Military Council (2019) , author3-link = International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance , author4-link = Eric Reeves , title = Sudan: Draft Constitutional Charter for the 2019 Transitional Period , website= sudanreeves.org , date = 2019-08-10 , url = https://sudanreeves.org/2019/08/06/sudan-draft-constitutional-charter-for-the-2019-transitional-period/ , accessdate = 2019-08-10 , archive-url= http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20210428013117/http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?url=http://sudanreeves.org/2019/08/06/sudan-draft-constitutional-charter-for-the-2019-transitional-period/ , archive-date= 2021-04-28 , url-status=live {{cite web , last1 = FFC, last2 = TMC , author1-link = Forces of Freedom and Change , author2-link = Transitional Military Council (2019) , title = (الدستوري Declaration (العربية)) , trans-title = (Constitutional Declaration) , language = ar , website= raisethevoices.org , date =2019-08-04 , url = http://raisethevoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/sudan-amendment.pdf , accessdate = 2019-08-05 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805170905/http://raisethevoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/sudan-amendment.pdf , archive-date= 2019-08-05 , url-status=live {{cite news , title= SRF rebels, Sudan govt sign agreement in Juba , date= 2019-10-21 , newspaper= Radio Dabanga , url= https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/srf-rebels-sudan-govt-sign-agreement-in-juba , accessdate=2019-10-22 , archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20191022193959/https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/srf-rebels-sudan-govt-sign-agreement-in-juba , archive-date= 2019-10-22 , url-status=live 2011 establishments in Sudan Rebel groups in Sudan Rebel groups that actively control territory Sudanese civil war (2023–present)

Composition

Areas of operation

Sudanese peace process

Sudanese civil war

See also

References