In 1971 Gaafar Nimeiry survived a pro-Soviet coup attempt, after which he forged an alliance with Mao Zedong of China, and, eventually, with the United States as well.
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26 Facts About Gaafar Nimeiry
2.
Gaafar Nimeiry was ousted from power in 1985 and went into exile in Egypt.
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3.
Gaafar Nimeiry returned in 1999 and ran in the presidential elections in 2000, but did poorly.
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4.
Jaafar Gaafar Nimeiry traced his lineage to the city of Dongola, one of the most important places where the Nubian tribes live and spread heavily in Northern Sudan.
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5.
Gaafar Nimeiry was educated at the Omdurman primary and elementary school, then in Wad Madani secondary school, and finally in Hantub school that had a British colonial character.
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6.
Gaafar Nimeiry then studied at Khartoum University College, but, as he desired a military career, he eventually graduated from the War College in Omdurman in 1952.
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7.
Gaafar Nimeiry earned a Master of Military Science from Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, United States in 1966.
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8.
Gaafar Nimeiry was accused in 1955 of orchestrating a coup d'etat against the country's democratic system at that time, but there was lack of sufficient evidence to show that he was involved.
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9.
Gaafar Nimeiry was interrogated again about a failed coup attempt led by an officer named Khalid Yusuf, but the investigation did not find anything to criminalize Nimeiry in the attempted coup.
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10.
Gaafar Nimeiry was released on 9 January 1967 and transferred to command the infantry school.
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11.
On 25 May 1969, together with four other officers, Colonel Gaafar Nimeiry, commanding the Khartoum Garrison, overthrew the civilian government of Ismail al-Azhari, his coup being termed the "May Revolution".
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12.
Gaafar Nimeiry created and chaired the Revolutionary Command Council.
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13.
Gaafar Nimeiry started a campaign aimed at reforming Sudan's economy through nationalization of banks and industries as well as some land reforms.
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14.
Gaafar Nimeiry used his position to enact a number of socialist and Pan-Arabist reforms.
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15.
In March–April 1970 Gaafar Nimeiry ordered an aerial bombardment on Aba Island which killed several thousand Ansar, members of the Umma Party which opposed him.
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16.
Gaafar Nimeiry then dissolved the RCC and founded the Sudanese Socialist Union which he declared to be the only legal political organization.
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17.
Gaafar Nimeiry successfully weathered a coup attempt by Sadiq al-Mahdi in 1970, and in 1971 was briefly removed from power by a Communist coup, before being restored.
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18.
General Elbagir, Gaafar Nimeiry's deputy, led a counter coup that brought Gaafar Nimeiry back within few hours.
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19.
Gaafar Nimeiry was one of only two Arab leaders who maintained close relations with Anwar Sadat after the Camp David Accords of 1978.
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20.
In 1981, Gaafar Nimeiry, pressured by his Islamic opponents, and still President of Sudan, began a dramatic shift toward Islamist political governance and allied himself with the Muslim Brotherhood.
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21.
In 1985 Gaafar Nimeiry authorised the execution of the peaceful yet controversial political dissident and Islamic reformist Mahmoud Mohamed Taha after Taha — who was first accused of religious sedition in the 1960s when Sudan's President was Ismail al-Azhari — had been declared an apostate by a Sudanese court.
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22.
Political and economic discontent against Gaafar Nimeiry grew over several years prior to 1985, according to Sudanese interviewed by The New York Times, who said that Gaafar Nimeiry had "begun to alienate almost every sector of Sudanese society".
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23.
On 6 April 1985, while Gaafar Nimeiry was on an official visit to the United States of America in the hope of gaining more financial aid from Washington, a bloodless military coup led by his defence minister Gen.
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25.
Gaafar Nimeiry returned to Sudan in May 1999 to a rapturous welcome that surprised many of his detractors.
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26.
Gaafar Nimeiry died of natural causes in his home in Omdurman on 30 May 2009.
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