page_title: Jaafar Nimeiry
section_title: First term as Prime Minister
hierarchical_section_title: Jaafar Nimeiry / 1969–1980 / First term as Prime Minister
caption_attribution_description: English: President of Sudan Gaafar Nimeiry (left), President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Libya Muammar Gaddafi at the Tripoli Airport
context_page_description: Jaafar Muhammad an-Nimeiry was a Sudanese politician who was the President of Sudan from 1969 to 1985.
  A military officer, he came to power after a military coup in 1969. With his party, the Sudanese Socialist Union, he initially pursued socialist and Pan-Arabist policies. In 1972 he signed the Addis Ababa Agreement, ending the First Sudanese Civil War. He later became an ally of the United States. In the late 1970s he moved towards Islamism, and in 1983 he imposed Sharia law throughout the country, precipitating the Second Sudanese Civil War. He was ousted from power in 1985 and went into exile in Egypt. He returned in 1999 and ran in the Presidential elections in 2000, but did poorly.
context_section_description: On 25 May 1969, together with four other officers, Colonel Nimeiry, commanding the Khartoum Garrison, overthrew the civilian government of Ismail al-Azhari, his coup being termed the "May Revolution". He created and chaired the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC). O'Ballance, writing in 1977, said that the 14 seniormost officers of the Sudanese Armed Forces were all out of the country at the time "either on official or private visits," so the "time chosen was opportune." On 26 May, he suspended the constitution, dissolved the Supreme Council, the National Assembly, and the Civil Service Commission, and ordered that all political parties disband. That day he also promoted himself to major-general, retired 22 serving officers, mostly senior to himself, dismissed over 30, and appointed 14 new officers to the most important posts. 
  Nimeiry became prime minister later, on 26 October 1969. He started a campaign aimed at reforming Sudan's economy through nationalization of banks and industries as well as some land reforms. He used his position to enact a number of socialist and Pan-Arabist reforms.
  In March-April 1970 Nimeiry ordered an aerial bombardment on Aba Island which killed several thousand Ansar, members of the Umma Party which opposed him. O'Ballance writes that about 4,000 troops, plus tanks, stormed Aba Island on 30 March, supported by aircraft.
  Later in 1971 he was elected President winning a referendum with 98.6 per cent of the votes. He then dissolved the RCC and founded the Sudanese Socialist Union which he declared to be the only legal political organization. In 1972 he signed the Addis Ababa Agreement whereby autonomy was granted to the non-Muslim southern region of Sudan, which ended the First Sudanese Civil War and ushered in an 11-year period of peace and stability to the region. In 1973 he drafted a new constitution which declared Sudan to be a democratic, socialist state and gave considerable power to the office of President.
  In the mid-1970s he launched several initiatives to develop agriculture and industry in Sudan and he invited foreign companies to explore for oil. (Chevron would discover oil reserves in South-Central Sudan in 1979.)
  In general he began a more Western-friendly policy, where banks were returned to private ownership and foreign investment was encouraged, as evidenced by a number of bilateral investment treaties: with the Netherlands August 22, 1970, Switzerland February 17, 1974, Egypt May 28, 1977, and France July 31, 1978. In July 1978 at the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit in Khartoum, Nimeiry was elected Chairman of the OAU until July 1979.
caption: Nimeiry, Nasser and Gaddafi in Tripoli, 1969.
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