SUDANESE LIBERATION ARMY
The Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA), based somewhere in Darfur's Jebal Marra Mountains, organized against the Khartoum government in February 2003. The SLA primarily comprises people from the Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit tribes. These rebels, who in recent years began considering themselves ethnically African, were frustrated by years of neglect on the part of the Khartoum government, which rarely pays for roads, schools, hospitals, or other facilities and infrastructures in Darfur. They were also angered by their poor representation in top government posts in the region. And when they appealed to Khartoum to include them in the peace negotiations between Khartoum and southern Sudan, they were ignored. In April 2003, the SLA launched its first major surprise attack, on the airport in north Darfur's capital city. The rebels shot up five military airplanes and two helicopter gunships, killed some 100 soldiers, and took a Sudanese air force general as a hostage. The SLA continued its attacks, targeting Khartoum government facilities in Darfur, until September 2003, when the group agreed to a ceasefire. But the ceasefire didn't take -- both sides violated the pact. Ceasefires negotiated in 2004 have suffered the same fate.
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