Sudan Toppling an Unpopular Regime

After two weeks of turmoil, the military ousts an absent President

President Gaafar Nimeiri was approaching Cairo International Airport, stopping over to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak after a ten-day visit to the U.S., when he heard the news: the Sudanese armed forces, led by his closest associate, Commander in Chief General Abdul Rahman Suwar Al Dahab, had overthrown him. The coup climaxed a period of turmoil that had gripped Nimeiri's country for more than two weeks and escalated during his absence. A stocky, gray-haired soldier, Suwar Al Dahab, 51, announced that the army wanted to bring under control "the worsening situation in the country." The military, he said, would "transfer...

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