Word: gaafar
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...reason for the impasse was el Mahdi's refusal to lift the state of emergency imposed after the ouster of President Gaafar Nimeiri in 1985. El Mahdi also ignored demands by the predominantly Christian rebels for nullification of the Shari'a, the Islamic law that imposes harsh penalties like amputation and stoning for even minor crimes. Army officers were further angered by el Mahdi's mismanagement of Sudan's economic crisis, which has saddled Sudan with a $13 billion foreign debt...
Perhaps the most intractable of the country's troubles is the war in the south, pitting the local African population, largely Christian and animist, against the predominantly Arab Muslim government of the north. Former President Gaafar Nimeiri, who was overthrown in a popular uprising in 1985, aggravated the existing religious and racial differences by imposing a set of harsh Islamic laws that call for floggings and amputations for criminal offenses even by non-Muslims. Abolition of the laws is a key demand of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army, whose antigovernment rebels control much of the rural south...
...country. Since 1983 the insurgents have violently resisted efforts of the Muslim-dominated government in Khartoum to impose its customs on the Christian and pagan south. Led by John Garang, a Christian from the Dinka tribe, the rebels have especially chafed against the "September laws" of former President Gaafar Nimeiri. Imposed in September 1983, the Islamic laws have been applied with unusual severity to all Sudanese, whatever their religion. In 1984 alone, hundreds of people, including foreigners, were given 80 lashes if liquor was detected on their breath. More than 200 others, convicted of theft, had their hands...
When the military overthrew the 16-year regime of President Gaafar Nimeiri in a bloodless coup last year, Lieut. General Abdul Rahman Suwar al Dahab, the Defense Minister who spearheaded the rebellion, moved into the colonial-style Presidential Palace on the banks of the Blue Nile in Khartoum. Grateful citizens slaughtered a cow in a traditional housewarming gesture to welcome the new leader, but Suwar al Dahab told them his stay would be short. Within a year, he promised, he would hold free elections and turn power over to a civilian government. Last week, Suwar al Dahab showed that...
...word in Khartoum last week was reconciliation: with the Sudanese people, with former enemy Libya and with antigovernment rebels in the south. The ruling military council, which took over after the ouster of President Gaafar Nimeiri last month, appointed a 15-man Cabinet, all but two of them civilians. The military will continue to wield power until elections, which the council has pledged will be held in a year's time...