 According to tribal leaders, civilians in Deim Zubeir and surrounding villages suffered from attacks by the insurgent Sudan People’ Liberation Army (SPLA) in 1985 and 1986.Johnson reasons that those raids “"on Fertit areas were part of a strategy in the mid-1980s to attack civilian populations seen as hostile, which was partially due to the inability of the guerrillas to hold territory"”.Moreover, SPLA assaults on the neighbouring town of Raja around Christmas-time in 1987 and on settlements along the road between Wau and Deim Zubeir caused mass displacement of civilians.