Anyanya II is the name taken in 1978 by a group of Nuer dissidents who took up arms in eastern Upper Nile. The name implies continuity with the Anyanya, or Anya-Nya, movement of the First Sudanese Civil War (1955-1972).
When the Addis Ababa Agreement fell apart in 1983, marking the beginning of the Second Sudanese Civil War, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) was founded. Competition between Anyanya II and the SPLM/A led to the eventual defeat of Anyanya II. Some of its members were incorporated into the ranks of the SPLM/A, and others were consolidated into a militia supported by the government of Sudan.[1][2] Those who did not join either came to form, along with tribal militias that emerged in response to the lawlessness of some SPLM/A units, the South Sudan Defence Forces.[3]