Admin
Sudan, former President Jaafar Nimeiri
South Sudan has undergone a series of significant administrative and political transformations since the 1970s, beginning with a presidential decree issued in 1972 by former President Jaafar Nimeiri. The decree established three regions—Equatoria, Bahr el Ghazal, and Upper Nile—with Juba, Wau, and Malakal designated as their respective capitals.
The decree also introduced a system of regional autonomy in Southern Sudan, outlining its governing structures, including the High Executive Council, the Regional Assembly, as well as governors and district commissioners. In April of the same year, Abel Alier was appointed President of the High Executive Council, reinforcing the framework of regional governance at the time.
However, this system did not last. In 1983, Nimeiri issued a decision dissolving the autonomous government and redividing the South into regions, alongside the imposition of Islamic Sharia law. This move was widely rejected in the South and led to the outbreak of the May 16, 1983 uprising, known as the Bor Mutiny.
Following this, a new administrative structure was introduced, whereby regions were headed by governors and districts were administered by commissioners, marking a reorganization of authority after the dissolution of autonomy.
In a later development, former President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, in 1994, divided South Sudan into more than ten states, representing another major shift in the region’s administrative structure.
These successive transformations reflect a complex trajectory of political and administrative restructuring in South Sudan amid broader national changes over the decades.
