Omar al-Bashir
Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir is a Sudanese former military officer and politician who served as Sudan's head of state under various titles from 1989 until 2019, when he was deposed in a coup d'état. He was subsequently incarcerated, tried and convicted on multiple corruption charges. He came to power in 1989 when, as a brigadier general in the Sudanese Army, he led a group of officers in a military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi after it began negotiations with rebels in the south; he subsequently replaced President Ahmed al-Mirghani as head of state. He was elected three times as president in elections that have been under scrutiny for electoral fraud. In 1992, al-Bashir founded the National Congress Party, which remained the dominant political party in the country until 2019. In March 2009, al-Bashir became the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), for allegedly directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur. On 11 February 2020, the Government of Sudan announced that it had agreed to hand over al-Bashir to the ICC for trial.
Some of the key events about Omar al-Bashir
- 1969Graduated from the Sudanese Military Academy
- 1989Led a successful military coup that brought him to power
- 1989Led a military coup to overthrow the democratically elected government of Sudan
- 1991Imposed Sharia law across Sudan, including in non-Muslim areas
- 1992Launched a campaign of ethnic cleansing against non-Arab populations in Sudan
- 1996Won Sudan's first multi-party presidential election
- 1996Provided sanctuary to Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders
- 1999Oversaw the beginning of oil exports from Sudan
- 2003Initiated a brutal counterinsurgency in Darfur, leading to widespread atrocities
- 2005Signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, ending the long-running civil war with South Sudan
- 2005Accused by the International Criminal Court of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity
- 2006Agreed to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur
- 2009Signed a power-sharing agreement with opposition parties
- 2009Expelled international aid organizations from Darfur, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis
- 2010Won re-election in Sudan's first multi-party election in 24 years
- 2010Rigged elections to maintain power, according to international observers
- 2011Oversaw the peaceful secession of South Sudan
- 2011Ordered military attacks on civilians in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states
- 2013Met with South Sudan's president to ease tensions between the two countries
- 2018Violently suppressed nationwide protests against his rule, resulting in dozens of deaths
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