Under Nazir al-Hadi Issa Debaker, the Beni Halba were actively involved in attacks upon the Fur people starting in 1987 through 1989. In this period a new militia called the Janjaweed, partially drawing upon the Beni Halba, was first formed.[3] In 1991 the Sudan People's Liberation Army, then fighting the Second Sudanese Civil War in the south of the country, sent a force under Daud Bolad to expand the conflict into Darfur.