[4] The Anyanya was founded in 1963,[5][2] as the Pojulu, Moru, Nuer, Lotuko, Madi, Bari, Acholi, Zande, Dinka, and other tribes from southern Sudan waged a war against the Sudanese government.

Shortly after Gordon Muortat Mayen was elected unanimously as southern Sudan's new president of the movement, the former SSPG was renamed the Nile Provisional Government (NPG).

Even before the civil war's formal end, many Anyanya had crossed the border to Uganda,[9] where their ally Idi Amin[10] controlled the military.

[13][a] As result of their association with Amin's unpopular regime, "Anyanya" eventually became a derogatory term in Uganda and was used as negative catch-all word for northern Ugandans as well as foreigners.

When the Addis Abeba 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.