Mafasani-Arezi War

Mafasani soldier posing with a captured Seddish M16 after the war.

### Results

- Mafasan seizes land from Arez and creates a buffer zone- Sedland attempts to coup Mafasan

- Civil unrest occurs in Arez

- The UDAC splits for a couple years

## Commanders and leaders

### BLUFOR Commanders

Ronald Donnison (Sedland)(President of Arez)

### OPFOR Commanders

Yaddam Hussein (Mafasan)Yergenov Myklov (Zimmer)

The **Mafasani-Arezi** war was a notable proxy war that occurred in the late 20th century that saw Mafasan, backed by the Second International, invade their neighboring country Arez, back by the FSTO, due to long running suspicions by Yaddam Hussein that the Arezi government was attempting to cause civil unrest in the nation.

## Pre-War

### Mafasani-Arezi Relations (1988-1996)

Before the situation in Untransk and inevitable invasion, Mafasan and Arez didn't really interact that much one on one. They had some diplomatic and economic ties following Mafasan's acceptance into the FSTO, but other than that the two nations never did much together.

#### Untransk rebellions (September 2, 1996)

The incident that many point to for being the start of the conflict between both nations is the protests by ethnic Arezi civilians in Untrask. The exact reason for these protests/riots is complex, with some of the more laxed claims being that it was due to the Barathist government being neglectful of the citizens. And some of the more extreme claims were that there was an ethnic cleansing of Arezi peoples happening in the location, though no definitive proof has been provided to prove that a genocide was actually occuring.

Whether the claims of genocide or government neglect were true, the Arezi government still went out of their way to support the movement. The protests would turn into riots as time went on, but after the rioters started to take up arms and create an insurgency Mafasan acted militarily.

##### Battle of Untrask/Ultimatum to Arez (November 15, 1996)

Before the situation in Untrask could get anymore violent, Yaddam Hussein orders a force of around 9,000 Armed Forces to move into Untrask and crush the rebellions. The fighting between the rebels and Mafasani armed forces ended in only a week after the separatists surrender to the army. Most of the rebels who fought were sent to Arez, with many of the higher ups of the movement being taken as POWs.

Despite this, Arez still showed support for the movement and those still running it underground. This was seen as an attack of Mafasan as a nation by Yaddam Hussein, who stated many times that the Arezi government was attempting to "destabilise Mafasan" by supporting the rebel groups. Arez's current sitting president would deny the claims of him trying to destabilize the country, rather than just supporting the separatists because they are fellow Arezians just like him. Hussein and other officials of Mafasan would not take this lightly, later sending an ultimatum to Arez telling them to stop supporting the rebels or they will respond militarily against them. Mafasan would continue warning Arez that they were serious for almost a month, until the government had enough and finally decided to retaliate.

## Mafasan's Invasion of Arez

### Early stages (November 30, 1996)

On November 30, 1996, a force of nearly 200,000 soldiers from Mafasan storm the border of Arez, officially starting off the war. Before their land invasion, air raids by the Mafasani Airforce took place that were inteded to take out airbases and military centers in western Arez so that troops wouldnt face much resistance when invading. The world was shocked by this invasion and most at the beginning took the side of Arez since they were technically the victims in this situation. Specifically the FSTO, which kicked Mafasan out of the alliance and began heavily funding Arez with weapons. This put the invasion to a slight halt but because of the location of the fighting sending supplies was a somewhat difficult task.

Yaddam Hussein knew that his nations military alone could not take on Arez with the support that they were getting so he decided to try appealing to the enemies of the FSTO, the Second International. He would manage to gain the support of many of the country's in the alliance, the most notable being Russbania, Chernan, and both Prussens.

#### Brief speeches from both leaders

Feeling as Mafasan was being incorrectly labeled as the aggressors in the war, Hussein took it upon himself to address why they believed their invasion was justified.

*"There are men in power from outside of Ex-Gerzonia who are taking the side Arez because they do not know the full context of the situation. War was the only solution to keeping the stability of Mafasan. We on multiple occasions wanted to deal with the situation peacefully, to which Arez denied each time. We are not the aggressors in this scenario, and those who say otherwise simply want to see our nation fall. Praise Allah and pray for the brave men fighting against Arez."*

*- Yaddam Hussein*

Not long after, the Arezian president would respond to Yaddam in an attempt to disprove what he was saying.

*Mafasan has commited several atrocities to the Arezian people inside their border instead of bringing the issue to us,we had no other choice other than support our brothers in need,Next thing we knew, Mafasan sent us an ultimatum, demanding we stop support our people in need.We then refused, and Mafasan declared war on us. **Mafasan is the real aggressor, not us.***

*- President of Arez*

Yaddam simply denied what the Arezian president stated and the war continued raging on not long after.

### Sedland sends troops to Arez (December 25, 1996)

With the approval of the Seddish parliament and the Arezi government, on Christmas day, Ronald Donnison would begin sending troops to the frontlines in Arez. This was not announced publicly until after the marines came in contact with Mafasani troops, in an effort to cause a surprise attack on the central front. This move was shown to be greatly effective as for the first time in the war Arez was finally making pushbacks. Casualties on both sides would begin to spike up at this point due to how aggressive the Seddish began being in order to wrap the war up in a short amount of time. They had airforce fighters do daily bombing raids against potential targets in Mafasani occupied sections of western Arez, which for the most part succeeded in destroying multiple supply lines but also indirectly caused massive civilian casualties that would unfortunately continue to rise as the war raged on.

It was also reported around this time that Krdorgia, specifically HANHAP, started sending their men to the frontlines on the side of Arez as a means of get back for Mafasan supporting the commonwealth during the Krdorgian Civil War. Their involvement in the war was pretty minor, although they still fought hard for Arez and would commit multiple atrocities as well. To be fair however it was proven a couple years after the war that Mafasan had ordered multiple air raids on infrastructures that were known to contain high numbers of civilians, although many nations that were specating the war didn't know that and seeing the war crimes committed by HANHAP led most to sympathize/support Mafasan. Specifically both Koswavia and Nalie who, despite both being countries in the FSTO, were against Sedland's intervention on Arez's side and instead sent weapons and cash to the Mafasanis. This was heavily problematic for Sedland as they now had to cancel plans for a naval blockade on Mafasan as Koswavia threatened to leave the FSTO if the Seddish were to intervene with their supplements. And because there was no more blockade, SI nations now had a much more open route to funding Mafasan.

#### First attempt at peace (March 29, 1997)

The war was most stagnant in 1997, with trench warfare mainly being applied as soldiers from both sides began being sent in mass to the frontlines. Not only that, but air warfare had started becoming more and more active due to the previously mentioned air raids from Sedland. Instead however, due to the SI sending some of their best aircraft to Mafasan, the Mafasani airforce would successfully be able to retaliate. Mainly by doing what Sedland was doing and bombing military supply lines and cities that could be hosting military presence. This brutality from both sides led to some council members of the LoN wanting to agree to a ceasefire to atleast take a mental breather and consider the impacts of these constant bombing raids. The Koswavian president in particular had a change of heart and now wanted to stop innocent blood from being spilt as a result of the conflict, suggesting that all parties involved should stop funding either side because that seems to be the main reason to why casualties have gone up so high. In an interview around the same time, he stated that he started intervening in the conflict because it was between two relatively small nations and he believed funding one side would get it over with faster. But because the war doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon he wants to have Koswavia and other nations alike stop funding the war.

Unfortunately, these attempts at peace would go nowhere as almost no one besides the Koswavians wanted to stop the war. And despite LoN stating a famine may be occuring due to the war, peacekeepers were never sent down to Arez.

### The Vangaurd Massacre/Zimmer joins the war (April 11, 1997)

For reasons still unknown this day, the Krajnan airforce gave commands to bomb targets within Mafasans borders from their base in Galista. The move ended up backfiring as Anti-aircraft weapons set up by the Zimmer group started firing on the airforce before most of the jets were able to reach their targets (this also resulted in one jet being shot down which is said to be the only Krajnan causality of the entire war). Despite the pushback, 3 jets did manage to successfully strike the zimmer hq building in Vanguard resulting in the deaths around 155 people and injured many more.

Most of the people killed were said to have been bystanders on the streets who died from ruble falling from the buildings, this fact alone made citizens desire vengence for the innocents killed in this attack. It didn't help that 2 of the 3 jets that carried out the bombing were comfirmed to be seddish S-16 fighter jets, leading to accusations of intentional war crimes being committed on behalf of Arez and their allies. The incident was dubbed "the vanguard massacre" and all who were killed were glorified as national heros in mafasani propaganda, further spreading anti-arezi sentiment throughout the nation. The zimmer group was now 100% involved in the war as personal on their side had also been killed in the incident. And with both armies wanting revenge for their people who had died by the hands of the enemy, it wouldn't be long before retaliation would take place.