The National Islamic Front (Arabic: الجبهة الإسلامية القومية; transliterated: al-Jabhah al-Islamiyah al-Qawmiyah) is the Islamist political organization founded and led by Dr. Hassan al-Turabi that has influenced the Sudanese government since 1979, and dominated it since 1989. It supports the maintenance of an Islamic state run on sharia and rejects the concept of a secular state.
While its legal front is the political party, the National Congress, there is little actual distinction between the two. It is nominally led by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. The NIF has shown itself to be both politically adept and ruthless in its use of violence, in particular in the internal conflicts of the Second Sudanese Civil War and the Darfur conflict, as well in the provisioning of proxy forces such as the Lord's Resistance Army, West Nile Bank Front and Uganda National Rescue Front II against Uganda.
Read more about National Islamic Front: History
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