Omar al-Bashir

Omar al-Bashir
عمر البشير
Omar al-Bashir, 12th AU Summit, 090202-N-0506A-137.jpg
Al-Bashir in 2009
7th President of Sudan
In office
30 June 1989 – 11 April 2019
Prime MinisterBakri Hassan Saleh
Motazz Moussa
Mohamed Tahir Ayala
Vice President
Preceded byAhmed al-Mirghani
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation
In office
30 June 1989 – 16 October 1993
DeputyZubair Mohamed Salih
Succeeded byHimself as President
Personal details
Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir

(1944-01-01) 1 January 1944 (age 75)
Hosh Bannaga, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
Political partyNational Congress (1992-2019)
Spouse(s)Fatima Khalid
Widad Babiker Omer
Alma materEgyptian Military Academy
Known forwanted by ICC for war crimes[1]
Military service
  •  Sudan
  •  Egypt
Branch/service Sudanese Army
Years of service1960–2019
RankSudan Field Marshal Rotated.svg Field Marshal

Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir (Arabic: عمر حسن أحمد البشير‎, pronounced [ba'ʃiːr];[2] born 1 January 1944) is a Sudanese politician who served as the seventh President of Sudan from 1989 to 2019, when he was deposed in a coup d'état.[3] His 30-year dictatorship was allegedly marked by oppression, genocide, and multiple other human rights abuses. He is currently incarcerated and awaiting trial for multiple corruption charges.[4] He came to power in 1989 when, as a brigadier in the Sudanese Army, he led a group of officers in a military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi after it began negotiations with rebels in the south.[5] He was elected three times as President in elections that have been under scrutiny for electoral fraud.[6] In 1992, al-Bashir founded the National Congress Party, which remained the dominant political party in the country until 2019.[7] In March 2009, al-Bashir became the first sitting president to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), for allegedly directing a campaign of mass killing, rape, and pillage against civilians in Darfur.[8]

In October 2005, al-Bashir's government negotiated an end to the Second Sudanese Civil War,[9] leading to a referendum in the South, resulting in the separation of the south as the country of South Sudan. In the Darfur region, he oversaw the war in Darfur that has resulted in death tolls that are about 10,000 according to the Sudanese Government,[10] but most sources suggest between 200,000[11] and 400,000.[12][13][14] During his presidency, there have been several violent struggles between the Janjaweed militia and rebel groups such as the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in the form of guerrilla warfare in the Darfur region. The civil war has displaced[15] over 2.5 million people out of a total population of 6.2 million in Darfur[16] and has created a crisis in the diplomatic relations between Sudan and Chad.[17] The rebels in Darfur lost the support from Libya after the death of Muammar Gaddafi and the collapse of his regime in 2011.[18][19][20]

In July 2008, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno Ocampo, accused al-Bashir of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in Darfur.[21] The court issued an arrest warrant for al-Bashir on 4 March 2009 on counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but ruled that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him for genocide.[22][23] However, on 12 July 2010, the Court issued a second warrant containing three separate counts of genocide. The new warrant, like the first, was delivered to the Sudanese government, which did not recognize either the warrant or the ICC.[23] The indictments do not allege that Bashir personally took part in such activities; instead, they say that he is "suspected of being criminally responsible, as an indirect co-perpetrator".[24] The court's decision was opposed by the African Union, League of Arab States and Non-Aligned Movement as well as the governments of Russia and China.[25][26]

From December 2018 onwards, Bashir faced large-scale protests which demanded his removal from power. On 11 April 2019, Bashir was ousted in a military coup d'état.[27][28] Bashir was replaced by the Transitionary Military Council which transferred executive power to a mixed civilian–military Sovereignty Council and a civilian prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, in September 2019. In early November 2019, the Forces of Freedom and Change alliance (FFC), which holds indirect political power during the 39-month Sudanese transition to democracy that started in September, Hamdok and Sovereignty Council member Siddiq Tawer stated that Bashir would be transferred to the ICC.[29][30][31]

Early and family life

Al-Bashir was born in Hosh Bannaga, just north of the capital, Khartoum, to a family of African-Arab descent. His mother was Hedieh Mohamed Al Zain (1926 – 29 July 2019).[32][33][34] He belongs to Al-Bedairyya Al-Dahmashyya, a Bedouin tribe belonging to the larger Ja'alin coalition,[35] an Arab tribe in middle north of Sudan (once a part of the Kingdom of Egypt and Sudan). He received his primary education there, and his family later moved to Khartoum where he completed his secondary education. Al-Bashir is married to his cousin Fatima Khalid. He also has a second wife named Widad Babiker Omer, who had a number of children with her first husband Ibrahim Shamsaddin, a member of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation who had died in a helicopter crash. Al-Bashir does not have any children of his own.[36]

Other Languages
العربية: عمر البشير
azərbaycanca: Ömər əl-Bəşir
Bân-lâm-gú: Omar al-Bashir
беларуская: Амар аль-Башыр
беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎: Амар аль-Башыр
Bikol Central: Omar-al-Bashir
български: Омар ал-Башир
brezhoneg: Omar al-Bashir
čeština: Umar al-Bašír
Ελληνικά: Ομάρ ελ-Μπεσίρ
Esperanto: Omar al-Baŝir
français: Omar el-Bechir
հայերեն: Օմար ալ-Բաշիր
hrvatski: Omar al-Bašir
Bahasa Indonesia: Umar al-Basyir
íslenska: Omar al-Bashir
Kinyarwanda: Omar El Bechir
Kiswahili: Omar al-Bashir
Lëtzebuergesch: Umar al-Baschir
lietuvių: Omar al-Bashir
مازِرونی: عمرالبشیر
Nederlands: Omar al-Bashir
oʻzbekcha/ўзбекча: Umar al-Bashir
português: Omar al-Bashir
српски / srpski: Омар ел Башир
srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски: Omar al-Bašir
Türkçe: Ömer el-Beşir
Thuɔŋjäŋ: Omar el Baciir
українська: Омар аль-Башир
Tiếng Việt: Omar al-Bashir
Yorùbá: Omar al-Bashir
粵語: 巴希爾