principally a grassroots phenomenon stemming from local tensions and conflicts", before such groups were co-opted and armed by the military intelligence of successive regimes in Khartoum for counterinsurgency. According to Samson Wassara, a leading South Sudanese scholar of political science, it was a militia with the euphemistic name National Peace Forces that operated in the area throughout the war. Like the SPLA, this group - also known as Salam Forces or Jaesh As-Salam - was accused by human rights activists like Amnesty International of killing hundreds of civilians. Despite the war and the large distance, Comboni Father Salvatore Pacifico as the Parish Priest of Raga still used to come to Deim Zubeir in the mid-1980s, according to Father Lwanga Cornelio, who was born and raised there. In November 1990, the BBC reported that Fertit militia forces defected from the government to the SPLA and "overran" Deim Zubeir town. Blocq stresses that the tribal and sub-tribal lines were blurred and Fertit combatants could be found on both sides.In June 2001 the SPLA overwhelmed Deim Zubeir, which as a garrison town was a considerable loss for the government in Khartoum. The rebels claimed to have killed 400 government soldiers. The BBC Monitoring Service at the time noted reports that the SPLA also "bombed a military camp for the displaced in Deim Zubeir". The offensive prompted a mass exodus of the civilian population, including families of soldiers, from Deim Zubeir and surrounding areas heading north and north-west into government-controlled areas. About 30,000 IDPs fled towards Timsahah and about 8,000 towards Ed Daein. After their military victory, the rebels also announced that they had renamed the town into "Deim New Sudan" after the vision of SPLA leader John Garang for a Sudan of unity in diversity. When the Khartoum government prepared for a counter-offensive to recapture Deim Zubeir, "the SPLA allegedly warned a security official with UN Operation Lifeline Sudan that the SPLA had used antipersonnel mines in October 2001 to defend the airstrip at Deim Zubeir". In November 2001 the government army took over Deim Zubeir again, with support from one of its Southern proxy militia, the South Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF). Subsequently, those pro-Khartoum forces engaged in a military campaign to expel the SPLA from the wider area, which resulted once more in mass displacement of civilians not only to northern Bahr el Ghazal, but also to Western Equatoria. Comprehensive Peace Agreement