Ahmad al-Mirghani

Ahmad Ali al-Mirghani ( Arabic أحمد علي الميرغني, DMG Aḥmad ʿAlī al-Mīrġanī ; * August 16, 1941 in al-Chartum Bahri ; † November 2, 2008 in Alexandria , Egypt ) was Sudanese President from May 6, 1986 to June 30, 1989 and was Sudanese politician and leader of the Khatmiyya Brotherhood until his death .

Life

Ahmad al-Mirghani grew up as the offspring of the Mirghani family, who are prominent in Sudan, his great-great-grandfather was Muhammad Uthman al-Mirghani, known as Al-Khatim, the founder of the Khatmiyya (also: Mirghaniyya ), a Sufi order ( Tariqa ) in northern Sudan has great influence.

He graduated from the University of London. After the interim government of Abdel Rahman Swar al-Dahab , he became increasingly involved in Sudanese politics. In the last free election in Sudan in 1986, he was elected head of state of the third free government in Sudan; Sadiq al-Mahdi was appointed its prime minister. In 1989 his government was overthrown in a bloodless coup by Umar al-Bashir .

One of the most important achievements during his presidency was the peace treaty negotiated in 1988 in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa between his party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the South Sudanese SPLM . All political currents in the country supported the peace course, but the ruling Islamist National Islamic Front (NIF) under Hassan al-Turabi fought it. Sudan under al-Mirghani was granted only a short period of stabilization and recovery after 16 years of authoritarian regime under President Numeiri .

After the coup, al-Mirghani went into exile in Alexandria in Egypt . Shortly before his death, he returned to Sudan to mediate in the Darfur conflict .

Al-Mirghani died in his Alexandria residence at the age of 67, allegedly from a respiratory illness.

Web links

• Biography on Sudan.net ( Memento from October 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive )