Ahmad Ali Al-Mirghani ( ar, أحمد الميرغني; 16 August 1942 – 2 November 2008) was the 6th President of Sudan from May 6, 1986, to June 30, 1989, when the democratically elected government was overthrown by a military coup led by Omar al-Bashir.

Early life

Al-Mirghani was the descendant of the respected Mirghani family of

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

and the great-great-grandson of Al

Sayyid ''Sayyid'' (, ; ar, سيد ; ; meaning 'sir', 'Lord', 'Master'; Arabic plural: ; feminine: ; ) is a surname of people descending from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali, sons of Muhamm ...

Mohammed Uthman al-Mirghani al-Khatim Mohammed Uthman al-Mirghani, known as Al-Khatim, was the founder of the Khatmiyya sufi tariqa, a sect of Islam, that has a following in Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia. Family He was born into the Mirghani family in Mecca which was o ...

. Ahmad Al-Mirghani held the title of

, denoting that he was accepted as a descendant of the Islamic prophet

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...

. He graduated with a First class degree from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

and returned to Sudan. His daughter currently resides in London with her four male children, two of whom are also at colleges that are a part of the University of London. He progressed through a professional career until the elections of 1986 when he was elected as the President of Sudan. He played a major role in convincing King Faisal of Saudi Arabia to travel and meet President Nasser of Egypt in Sudan in the famous

1967 Arab League summit The 1967 Arab League summit was held on August 29 in Khartoum as the fourth Arab League Summit in the aftermath of the Arab defeat by Israel in the Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the ...

in Khartoum.

Presidency

Al-Mirghani was elected President of Sudan in May 1986 during the country's last democratic elections. He was unseated in a 1989 coup led by Omar al-Bashir.

Later years

Following the coup Al-Mirghani lived in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

. He returned to Sudan shortly before his death and lobbied for peace on the

War in Darfur The War in Darfur, also nicknamed the Land Cruiser War, is a major armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel groups beg ...

. He actively worked on the Darfur file and was chosen as the head of the Darfur Circle in the Democratic Unionist Party. His final trip abroad was to Libya where he held a number of meetings with Darfur rebel groups and the Libyan leadership regarding the solutions to the Western Sudan problem.

Death

Al-Mirghani died in Egypt on November 2, 2008, at the age of 66. Several Sudanese politicians including the president travelled to the Mirghani base in

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum ( ; ar, الخرطوم, Al-Khurṭūm, din, Kaartuɔ̈m) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 5,274,321, its metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing n ...

to mourn the former president. His body was flown to Khartoum on November 5, and his funeral was held there on the same day. The funeral procession travelled from the airport in the south of the capital Khartoum through the city streets to the north of the capital, where he was buried.

Panama Papers

In April 2016, al-Mirghani was named in the

Panama Papers The Panama Papers ( es, Papeles de Panamá) are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 ...

as owner of Orange Star Corporation, which was created in 1995 and based in the

British Virgin Islands ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = Territorial song , song = "Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands" , image_map = File:British Virgin Islands on the globe (Americas centered).svg , map_caption = , mapsize = 290px , image_map2 = Brit ...

, an offshore tax haven that is often used for tax-evasion purposes. The Panama Papers revealed that Orange Star bought an apartment North of the Hyde Park area in London for £600,000. Today, apartments in the same area are sold for over 2 million British pounds. In 2008 at the time of al-Mirghani's death through the company he held 2.72 million

US dollars The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

in assets.

References

External links

The Times: Ahmed al-Mirghani: Democratic Sudanese President
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mirghani, Ahmed al- 1942 births 2008 deaths People from Khartoum North Presidents of Sudan Democratic Unionist Party (Sudan) politicians Leaders ousted by a coup Alumni of the University of London Husaynids People named in the Panama Papers