In 1983 President Gaafar Nimeiry declared all Sudan an Islamic state under Sharia law, including the non-Islamic majority southern part of the country. The Southern Sudan Autonomous Region was abolished on 5 June 1983, terminating the Addis Ababa Agreement of 1972, which ended the First Sudanese Civil War.[4] This move directly initiated the Second Sudanese Civil War in 1983.[5]