The SPLA and the Sudan Peoples Democratic Front (SPDF) announced that they are once again a united front. A decade ago the SPLAs John Garang and Riek Machar (head of the SPDF) had a falling out and the SPLA split. The SPLA and SPDF have fought one another on several occasions. In fact, the SPDF reached a peace accord with Khartoum in 1997 and Machar was once Omar al-Bashirs assistant president. As noted in StrategyPage at the time, Machar resigned from the government in 2000 and went back to being a rebel. Were not ready to make too much of this report politically, though there are indications that the SPLA and SPDF are trying to cooperate in the field against the Khartoum government. Were not ready to make too much of this report politically, though there are indications that the SPLA and SPDF are trying to cooperate in the field against the Khartoum government. For what its worth, the Sudanese government immediately slammed the merger as an escalation of military operations by the rebels. A Khartoum spokesman predicted that Garang would have Machar killed (according to the AFP report the spokesman said Garang would have him liquidated).