Word: nimeiri
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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...
Ironically, the coup was preceded by weeks of rumors in Cairo that the exiled Nimeiri would soon stage a comeback, but his desire to return to power seems unrelated to last week's revolt. It was apparently a homegrown plot led by impatient brigadier generals, not the senior command. The political direction of the new regime is uncertain, but the draconian nature of its decrees indicates that the new leadership means business. Its first orders: the dissolution of parliament and political parties, a ban on political opposition, the disbanding of labor unions and the cancellation of newspaper licenses...
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...
Sudan's limping economy was another legacy of Nimeiri, and Mahdi has not improved matters much. In June, responding to demands by the IMF, the government raised the price of wheat flour and reduced subsidies on nonessential goods. Angry citizens have taken to the streets to protest food shortages, lack of jobs and a 50% inflation rate. Although the rich silt deposited by the flood should give farmers a temporary boost after the waters subside, the economy's larger problems will not go away easily...
...forces, supported, the rebels claimed, by 13,000 Libyan troops gathered on the border. Though Sadiq denies any ties to Tripoli, there seems little doubt that he is drifting politically leftward. In early August the new Prime Minister visited Libya, which had been an enemy of the pro-American Nimeiri, and later he traveled to Moscow. Said Information Minister Mohammed Tewfiq Ahmed: "We cannot afford to have bad relations with any of the superpowers. In the past the Soviets built some hospitals and factories. If they can help with agriculture, education and health facilities, we don't want...