Nuer White Army

Rare card · No. 22678

The Nuer White Army, sometimes decapitalised as the "white army", is a semi-official name for an ethnic Nuer militant organization in central and eastern Greater Upper Nile in modern-day South Sudan formed around 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. While sometimes reported that 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, other sources contend the name was merely intended to draw a distinction between the Nuer militia and the Sudan Armed Forces, with the irregular "white" forces opposing the regular "black" forces. "Black forces" refer to a Nuer word, dec char, meaning a trained or uniformed soldier.

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