Word: mahdi
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Thus calmly and apparently bloodlessly, the three-year-old civilian government of Prime Minister Sadiq el Mahdi was toppled late last week. Although the timing was unexpected, the coup came as no surprise. The armed forces had demonstrated unusual restraint during the Prime Minister's ineffectual reign, which neither advanced a political settlement in the savage six-year-old civil war nor dealt with the country's vicious poverty and famine. Speaking for the rebellious forces, Brigadier Omar Hassan Ahmed el Bashir said el Mahdi had "wasted the country's time and squandered its energies with much talk and policy...
...Khartoum. Paratroop and armored units surrounded the presidential palace and government ministries. The city's international airport and key bridges were closed, but communications lines remained open. The Egyptian-owned Middle East News Agency reported the arrest of some officials, but there was no immediate word on el Mahdi's whereabouts...
...restlessness of the military became public last February when the army issued an ultimatum to el Mahdi: Seek peace with the rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, or resign. In response, the Prime Minister formed a new coalition government and made overtures to the SPLA. A cease-fire followed, but the two sides failed to reach agreement...
...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...
...Sudan get worse? Last week it did, as workers staged a general strike that closed the airport in Khartoum and shut down most telephone and telex lines. Rumors of coup attempts swept the capital as angry demonstrators took to the streets demanding the head of Prime Minister Sadiq el Mahdi...