Gaafar Nimeiry

Field Marshal Gaafar Muhammad an-Nimeiry
جعفر محمد النميري
Nimeiry in 1974
Chairman of the National Revolutionary Command Council
In office 25 May 1969 – 12 October 1971
Deputy	Babiker Awadalla
Preceded by	Ismail al-Azhari (President)
Succeeded by	Himself (President)
2nd President of Sudan
In office 12 October 1971 – 6 April 1985
Vice President	First Vice Presidents Abel Alier Mohamed Al-Baghir Ahmed Abuelgasim Mohamed Hashim Second Vice Presidents Abdul Majid Hamid Khalil Omar Muhammad al-Tayib
Preceded by	Himself as the chairman of the National Revolutionary Command Council
Succeeded by	Abdel Rahman Swar al-Dahab
8th Prime Minister of Sudan
In office 28 October 1969 – 11 August 1976
President	Himself
Preceded by	Babiker Awadalla
Succeeded by	Rashid Bakr
In office 10 September 1977 – 6 April 1985
President	Himself
Preceded by	Rashid Bakr
Succeeded by	Al-Jazuli Daf'allah
Personal details
Born	(1930-01-01)1 January 1930 Wad Nubawi, Omdurman, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
Died	30 May 2009(2009-05-30) (aged 79) Omdurman, Sudan
Political party	Sudanese Socialist Union (while in power)[1] Alliance of the Peoples' Working Forces (after return from exile, merged with NCP but the Sudanese Socialist Democratic Union was established in 2008 as the successor party)
Military service
Allegiance	Sudan
Years of service	1952–1985
Rank	Field Marshal
Battles/wars	First Sudanese Civil War Second Sudanese Civil War

Gaafar Muhammad an-Nimeiry (otherwise spelled in English as Gaafar Nimeiry, Jaafar Nimeiry, or Ja'far Muhammad Numayri; Arabic: جعفر محمد النميري; 1 January 1930^[2][3] – 30 May 2009^[4]) was a Sudanese military officer and politician who served as the fourth head of state of Sudan from 1969 to 1985, first as Chairman of the National Revolutionary Command Council and then as President.^[5]

A military officer, he came to power after a military coup in 1969. Establishing a one-party state, with his Sudanese Socialist Union as the sole legal political entity in the country, Nimeiry pursued socialist and Pan-Arabist policies and close collaboration with Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. In 1971 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.^[4]

In 1972 he signed the Addis Ababa Agreement, ending the First Sudanese Civil War. In his last years in power he also adopted aspects of Islamism, and in 1983 he imposed Sharia law throughout the country, precipitating the Second Sudanese Civil War. He was ousted from power in 1985 and went into exile in Egypt. He returned in 1999 and unsuccessfully ran in the presidential elections in 2000.