SOUTH SUDAN, AFRICA — A group of armed militants is marching to fight in the growing crisis in South Sudan. The White Army is named from the white ash used to cover their bodies. They are a group of disgruntled young and under-employed men.
The Washington Post reports, “Twenty-five thousand young men who make up a tribal militia known as the “White Army” are marching toward a contested state capital in South Sudan, an official said Saturday, dimming hopes for a cease-fire.”
However, the BBC reports that the group is not made up of a tribe or ethnic group.
Wikipedia defines the White Army as follows: The Nuer White Army, sometimes decapitalised as the “white army”, is a semi-official name for a militant organisation formed by the Nuer people of central and eastern Greater Upper Nile in modern-day South Sudan as early as 1991. According to the Small Arms Survey, it arose from the 1991 schism within the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) for the dual purpose of defending Nuer cattle herds from neighbouring groups and fighting in the Second Sudanese Civil War between the SPLM/A and the Sudanese government.
The White Army was so named due to the Nuer practice of smearing one’s skin with a light-coloured ash as a protection against biting insects, according to a Small Arms Survey report published in June 2007, though other sources contend the name was merely intended to draw a distinction between the Nuer militia and the Sudan Armed Forces.
The BBC reports they don’t know exactly why the White Army is on the move at this time. They report, “Thousands of youths loyal to South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar are marching on the strategic town of Bor, according to government sources.
Government troops are currently in control of Bor, the capital of Jonglei state they had taken from the rebels.
The government has offered to cease hostilities, but an army spokesman told the BBC that its forces were still battling over oilfields in the north.
At least 1,000 people have died since fighting broke out earlier this month.
More than 121,600 are believed to have fled their homes.
What began as a power struggle between Mr Machar and President Salva Kiir has taken on overtones of a tribal conflict. The Dinka, to which Mr Kiir belongs, are pitted against the Nuer, from which Mr Machar hails.
The White Army is a name that inspires fear in South Sudan.
This loose grouping of armed youth from the Nuer ethnic group was at least partly responsible for the 1991 Bor massacre, in which at least 2,000 people were killed. Then, the White Army fought alongside Riek Machar, who had split away from the main southern Sudanese rebel group fighting Khartoum.
In 2011 and 2012 a new incarnation of the White Army went on the rampage, killing hundreds of civilians from the Murle ethnic group. At the time, Mr Machar was vice president – and although he travelled to meet them, he was unable to stop their advance.
Now the South Sudanese government says thousands of White Army members are marching on Bor – under Mr Machar’s command. This is an explosive claim – particularly as Mr Machar is under international pressure to stop fighting and begin negotiations by the end of the year.
Tens of thousands of civilians have sought refuge in UN camps and reinforcements have been arriving to give them extra protection.
Joe Contreras, a spokesman for the UN Mission in South Sudan, told the BBC World Service Newshour programme that the reported advance of the armed youths was a dangerous development.”