In 1968, Rolf Steiner returned to Europe after getting arrested and kicked out of Biafra by President Ojukwu. After his last operation, Steiner had become paranoid and utterly belligerent toward his higher ups and even his own men. He returned to France and soon grew tired of swapping stories with other Congo-war vets and longed to be back in Africa, “making a difference again” wherever he may be needed. Steiner soon learned about the plight of the Christians and the Anyanya people in Southern Sudan. The Anyanya felt that their region and existence as a whole was ignored and isolated from the rest of the world. Israel started planning Operation Tarzan to fly arms and supplies to aid the Anyanya and put a thorn in the side of the main Sudanese military that was already engaged in the Suez Canal Crisis.
Uganda also made a deal to supply and arm the Anyanya for a cut of the profits from their illegal ivory trade, one of the only resources they had to leverage at the time. Steiner got in contact with the commando of the Ugandan Forces, Idi Amin, and arrived in Sudan in July, 1969. Steiner started supervising the construction of an airfield to fly in arms and supplies. In Steiner’s memoirs, he describes Southern Sudan as a place where the people were almost living in the Stone Age, writing that the people had nothing: "not even the most ordinary objects which seem to have invaded the planet - not a plastic bucket, a box of matches, a nylon shirt, or even a bottle of Coca-Cola. Nine-tenths of the people went naked. They lived like animals. The women didn't even have pots to cook in. Instead the men hammered bits of sheet metal into usable shapes". Steiner was surprised that the local economy still ran with the barter economy system, and the lack of cash to buy arms was supplemented by the nearly wholesale slaughter of elephants for their tusks.
By August 1969, Steiner had gotten close with the Anyanya General Emilio Taefeng, and urged the General to use his ambition to become the leader of the Anyana people. At the same time, Steiner made moves of his own, including planting a false narrative in a Ugandan newspaper stating that the revolution had overthrown the Anyanya Government, Nile Provisional Government, and that the Anyana people were fully loyal to Taefeng. By November, Steiner was serving as a military advisor to Taefeng who even promoted him to the rank of Colonel and put Steiner in charge of an estimated force of about 24,000 men. Soon the Anyanya forces would splinter and infighting would soon take over, partially thanks to Steiner’s broken promises to Taefeng. Steiner promised that if Taefeng could distract the Nile Provisional Government, Steiner could get weapons and supplies from Germany so they could "fight the Arabs together".
Steiner was sure that the weapons could be smuggled into the Sudan through Uganda, under the guise of humanitarian aid. Steiner claimed it would be easy to hide weapons and ammo among the blankets, medical supplies and agricultural implements that would be sent. Steiner also tried to convince Taefeng to fully overthrow the Nile Provisional Government, take charge, and appointed Steiner as the chief of staff of Anyanya. American documentary filmmaker Allan Reed found Steiner in 1970 and recalled: "He wanted to be king. We found him sitting on the ground in this little hut, and he was patching up some infected wounds that some kids had, there was a whole long line of them. He said the only time he was ever happy was when he went into battle. His eyes lit up when he talked about it. He told me that he thinks of himself as a 17th century man. It seemed to me that he was there building himself a little kingdom". Steiner also claimed that he was working for MI6 and the CIA, but Reed said: "Steiner didn't deliver any goods. 
Any major Western intelligence agency could at least get him some machine guns or munitions...It was really quite strange. It was quite a pathetic looking place". The locals even stated that the airport Steiner ordered them to create the year prior, had never had a single plane touchdown. Steiner had promised planes full of arms and aid for the Anyanya but nothing had ever arrived. Once again Steiner would lead his men into a battle with zero support, neither from planes or artillery, an assault on the Sudanese Army post at Kajo Keji. The attack was a disaster. The limited amount of small arms his men possessed were no match for the heavy machine guns and mortars in the Sudanese fort. Steiner made a fruitless trip back to Germany in an attempt to bring mercenaries back to Sudan and had no success.
By the time he got back, the Sudanese Army had taken back a large portion of Southern Sudan. Taefeng, to save his own people, disbanded his movement and supported the new leadership under Sudanese President Gaafar Nimeiry, who despised Steiner. Steiner was arrested and served 3 years in a Sudanese prison. The courts claimed that Steiner's role in the war was much larger than it actually was and portrayed him as the mastermind behind the rebellion, ignoring the fact that rebellion had started long before Steiner had arrived in 1969.
The Nimeiry claimed it was mainly Steiner who had duped gullible Africans into fighting against Khartoum. Steiner was severely tortured and was eventually sentenced to death by the Sudanese courts. Soon the courts commuted his sentence to 20 years in prison, but luckily he would be released in 1974 thanks to immense pressure from West Germany. As a result of imprisonment and torture in Khartoum, Steiner lost one kidney together with 30% of his vision in both eyes.
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