ABSTRACT

Introduction On 30 June 1989, amidst a lot of fidgeting, political confusion and intrigue - these being the customary ingredients of traditional party politics in Sudan - Brigadier Omar Hassan Ahmad al Bashir put an end to Sadiq al Mahdi's government. Through his procrastination on the implementation of the peace agenda, and internal wranglings within his government, al Mahdi virtually handed the government over to the NIF. According to diplomatic observers who previously pinned their hopes on al Mahdi's government, 'popular disillusionment have reached the point where the average citizen was ready to welcome any rule replacing the ill-fated democracy'.1 The regime was so ineffective and bereft of defenders that even the Prime Minister and the minister in charge of the regime's security ran for cover.2