Ibrahim Abboud was born 26 October 1900 in Mohammed-Gol, near the old port city of Suakin on the Red Sea. He trained as an engineer at the Gordon Memorial College and at the Military College in Khartoum. He received a commission in the Egyptian Army in 1918 and transferred to the Sudan Defence Force in 1925, after its creation separate from the Egyptian army. During World War II he served in Eritrea, in Ethiopia, with the Sudan Defence Force, and with the British army in North Africa. After the war, Abboud commanded the Camel Corps, and then rose rapidly to commander of the Sudan Defence Force in 1949 and assistant commander in chief in 1954. With the declaration of independence for the Sudan in 1956, he was made commander in chief of the Sudanese military forces. After the Sudanese army staged a "coup d'état" in November 1958, overthrowing the civilian government of Abdullah Khalil, Gen. Abboud led the new military government. Philip Agee alleged that CIA engineered the 1958 coup in "In the Company."