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The Messiria (), also known as Misseriya Arabs, are a branch of the Baggara ethnic grouping of Arabs tribes.Adam, Biraima M. (2012). Baggara of Sudan: Culture and Environment. Amazon online Books. Their language is primarily Sudanese Arabic, while Chadian Arabic is also spoken by a small number of them in Darfur. Their population estimate varies, perhaps between 500,000 and 1 million in western Sudan, extending into eastern Chad. They are primarily nomadic cattle herders and their journeys are dependent upon the seasons of the year. The use of the term Baggara carries negative connotations as slave raiders, so they prefer to be called instead Messiria.
In general the Dar el Messiria or their zones can be divided into three areas:
The Messiria in the three different zones have been separated for so long that they have developed localized cultural and social differences. The Messiria in Kordofan know little if anything about the Messiria in Darfur and Chad, but they belong to the same tribe and they have similar tribal divisions and diversities.
The Messiria Humr pastoralists migrate across the four regions of their homeland (Dar el Humr): Babanousa, Muglad, Goz, and Bahr al-Arab.Nicole Grandin (1982). 9789004064041, Etudes sociales, politiques et économiques du Moyen Orient, E. J. Brill. ISBN 9789004064041
The location of Messiria in the Kordofan is at the border zone between Sudan and South Sudan, specially the southern Fringes of their nomadic zone. The Abyei area is claimed by Messiria as well as by Ngok Dinka, to be theirs. While the Messiria are Baggara Arabs, Sunni Muslims and identified as 'northerners', on the other hand, Ngok Dinka are 'southerners' and identified as African people either Christians or animists. Henderson, MacMichael, and Ian Cunnison all attest the presence of Messiria in the eighteenth century. Similar history is also available for the nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms on the same area. Being both nomads, the Messiria and Dinka coexisted for long time and shared the grazing resources. Those Messiria who have most contact with Ngok Dinka are the Messiria Humr. The Messiria Zurug share most of their land with the Nuba peoples tribes, along the western sides of the national highway connecting Deling to Kadugli; the capital city of South Kordofan and extending to Talodi. On the eastern side of this national highway found the Hawazma tribes sharing the land also with the Nuba tribes. The Nuba are indigenous people, inhabiting the area known as Nuba Mountains of Southern Kordofan and mostly Sunni Muslims, with a bit of Christians and animists. Both Nuba and Dinka are sided with Southern Rebels (SPLA/SPLM) during the civil war, while Messiria and Hawazma sided with Sudanese government.
Both branches of Messiria, the Humr and the Zurug, are involved in historical grazing disputes and isolated fights along their southern borders, either with Dinka,Richard Crockett (2010). Yale University Press. Sudan: The Failure and Division of an African State. pp. 112–113. . Nuer people, or Nuba over grazing and water resources. The traditional fighting was intensified during the first southern guerrilla's fighting, called Anyanya, in 1964 when a whole Messiria nomad camp around Lake Abyyad was massacred by Anyanya fighters, none were spared including children, elderly and brides; many Messiria were abducted and women were raped by the rebels. The Messiria retaliated with a sequence of attacks targeting southern villages and nomadic camps; they abducted children and raided cattle. At the time, the abductions and retaliations became the norm in the region, but, mostly children and cattle were retrieved by local authorities and the spirit and will of coexistence always prevailed.
Such targeting of Messiria nomads by Anyanya fighters lead to Messiria starting to accumulate weaponry to counterbalance the rebel fighters' force. Earlier incidents in the early eighteenth century during British rule, had led to both Hawazma and Messiria taking up arms. In around 1908, the British armed the Nuba to fight against the expansion of the northern Arabs in the region. Weapons, known locally as Marmatoun and Ab’gikra, were as common among Nuba as AK-47 among Baggara Arabs today. All these indicate that the ingredients of ethnic war already exist in the region and the new SPLA war was just an ignition of an existing ethnic chasm in the area.
In Abyei, the Ngok Dinka and Messiria are engaged in territorial disputes.
The Sudanese government gave the Messiria Arab militia machine guns and ordered them to drive the Nilotic peoples from the Western Upper Nile oil region. They successfully took the Luk Nuer in Bentiu and eastern Jikany Nuer in 1984.Jemera Rone, Human Rights Watch (Organization) (1999). 9781564321930, Human Rights Watch. . ISBN 9781564321930
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