List of Heads of State of Sudan

List Of Heads Of State Of Sudan

Since the country's independence on 1 January 1956, six individuals (and three multi-member sovereignty councils) have served as head of state of Sudan, currently under the title President of the Republic of Sudan. Prior to independence, Sudan was governed as a condominium by Egypt and the United Kingdom, under the name Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. As such, executive power was vested in a dyarchy consisting of both countries' heads of state – at the time of independence, the Queen of the United Kingdom (Elizabeth II) and the Egyptian Revolutionary Command Council (headed by Gamal Abdel Nasser). Immediately following independence, the role of head of state was filled by a five-member Sovereignty Council, with rival nationalist factions unable to agree on a single candidate. In November 1958, General Ibrahim Abboud led a military coup d'état, assuming the role of head of state as Chairman of the Supreme Council. Assuming the title of president in 1964, he resigned later that year due to general discontent around the rule of the military regime. Abboud was succeeded by a senior civil servant, Sirr Al-Khatim Al-Khalifa, who serving as acting president for 18 days before transferring executive authority to a Committee of Sovereignty. Ismail al-Azhari, the leader of the National Unionist Party, was made president in July 1965, and ruled with limited power until he was deposed in 1969. The military officers responsible for the coup established the National Revolutionary Command Council, chaired by Gaafar Nimeiry. Nimeiry, the leader of the newly formed Sudanese Socialist Union, assumed the position of president in 1971, and subsequently established a single-party state, which existed until 1985, when a group of military officers overthrew his government and established the Transitional Military Council, led by Lieutenant-General Abdel Rahman Swar al-Dahab. Ahmed al-Mirghani succeeded to the relatively powerless position of Chairman of the Supreme Council in 1986, after multi-party elections held that year. He was deposed in a 1989 military coup led by Lieutenant-General Omar al-Bashir. Al-Bashir has served as head of state since the coup, under the title of Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation to 1993 and as president from 1993 onwards (and from 1996 as the leader of the National Congress Party).