The Sudan Handbook

kEy fiGuREs in sudanEsE histoRy, CultuRE & PolitiCs 329

of Sudan from 1972 to 1981 and President of the Southern High Executive

Council between 1972 and 1977 and again from 1980 to 1981. He is the

author of Southern Sudan: Too Many Agreements Dishonoured (1990). He is a

member of the International Court of Justice at The Hague and served

as the Chairman of the National Election Commission, the official body

responsible for organizing the 2010 elections.

Ahmad Muhammad HaRoun (b. 1964). Politician. Born and

educated in North Kordofan, he studied Law at the University of Cairo

and worked as a judge for a few years before joining the government.

In the early 1990s he was involved in the mobilization of the govern-

ment’s Popular Defence Forces in South Kordofan and, later, the forcible

relocation of many Nuba to government ‘peace camps’. Between 2003

and 2005, he was Minister of State for the Interior, during which time

he headed the Darfur security desk. In 2006 he was appointed Minister

of State for Humanitarian Affairs in the Government of National Unity

and UNAMID liaison. In May 2007 he was indicted by the International

Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

He was appointed governor of South Kordofan state in 2009.

AhmEd IbRahim DiRaiGE (b.1935). Son of a Fur Paramount Chief

and founder of the Darfur Development Front in 1963. He became an

Independent Member of Parliament in 1965 and was appointed Minister

of Labour and Cooperatives between 1966 and 1967. He was appointed

Governor of Darfur by Nimeiri in 1981. During a severe drought in 1983,

Diraige warned of impending famine in Darfur while Nimeiri continued

to promote Sudan as a future ‘breadbasket of the Arab World’. As the

1984–85 famine took hold, he was forced into exile. He later created the

Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance and joined the umbrella opposition

movement, the National Democratic Alliance. In 2006 he was appointed

head of the short-lived National Redemption Front, a coalition of Darfur

rebel groups that declined to sign the 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement.

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors

(www.riftvalley.net).