In the non-Arab, non-Muslim southern Sudan, however, the arbitrary rule of the military government produced a more negative reaction than in the north. Thus, the government's vigorous program of Arabization and Islamization in the south provoked strikes in the schools and open revolt in the countryside. Opposition to the government was met by force, and many southerners fled as refugees into the neighbouring countries. By 1963 the conflict had escalated to a civil war in which the northern troops held the towns while the southern guerrillas roamed the countryside. Abboud's forces were responsible for large numbers of deaths in Kodok, Yei and Maridi, and overall his government was responsible for the deaths of more Sudanese people than any other head of state until Omar al Bashir. Finally, in August 1964, in a desperate attempt to find a solution to the enervating campaign in the south, Abboud established a 25-man commission to study the problem and make recommendations for its solution. When the commission, in turn, asked for public debate on the "southern question," the students of Khartoum University initiated a series of debates that soon turned into a forum for open criticism of all aspects of the administration. The government banned these debates, precipitating student demonstrations in which one student was killed. The situation rapidly deteriorated, and within two days the civil service and the transport workers were on strike. Demonstrations followed in the provinces. Rather than suppress the opposition by armed force and bloodshed, Abboud dissolved his government on 26 October 1964, and allowed the formation of a provisional cabinet under Sirr Al-Khatim Al-Khalifa to replace the Supreme Council. Abboud himself was forced to resign on 15 November in favor of a civilian provisional government, and he retreated into retirement, thus ending the Republic of the Sudan's first period of military rule.