\n Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, long wanted on genocide and war crimes charges, was finally brought down in a popular uprising by the very people he ruled with an iron fist for 30 years.\n<\/p>\n
\n One of Africa's longest-serving presidents, the 75-year-old had remained defiant in the face of months-long protests that left dozens of demonstrators dead in clashes with security forces.\n<\/p>\n
\n But his fate was sealed when the army bowed to the demands on the street and intervened on Thursday to oust Bashir, who swept to power in a coup backed by Islamists in 1989.\n<\/p>\n
\n In what was clearly a last ditch effort to quell the protests, Bashir had imposed a state of emergency on February 22 after an initial crackdown failed to rein in the demonstrators.\n<\/p>\n
\n At first the emergency rule curbed the scale and intensity of the protests, but before long demonstrators staged a massive rally outside the military headquarters that reverberated with chants of \"overthrow, overthrow\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Bashir's last minute overtures offering to hold dialogue with youths and acknowledging their economic concerns were legitimate failed to pacify the protesters.\n<\/p>\n
\n For years the Sudanese leader had proven himself to be a political survivor, evading not only the International Criminal Court (ICC) but also a myriad of domestic challenges.\n<\/p>\n
\n A career soldier, Bashir was well known for his populist touch, insisting on being close to crowds and addressing them in colloquial Sudanese Arabic.\n<\/p>\n
\n He was indicted by the Hague-based ICC in 2009 on war crimes charges over a long-running conflict in Darfur, but went on to win re-election twice in polls boycotted by opposition groups.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 2010, he was also indicted by the ICC for alleged genocide.\n<\/p>\n
\n But it was a government decision to triple bread prices that brought protesters onto the streets in December last year, as the country grappled with regular shortages of food, medicines and foreign currency.\n<\/p>\n
\n The protests morphed into nationwide demonstrations against Bashir 's rule, triggering unrest that also left hundreds wounded and thousands jailed.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bashir addressed several loyalist rallies, promising to promote economic development and peace across the country, but his words fell on deaf ears.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Defiant to the end -\n<\/p>\n
\n Known for his trademark dancing and waving of a stick before addressing loyalists, Bashir had defiantly said at a recent rally of supporters that \"demonstrations will not change the government\".\n<\/p>\n
\n But as the pressure on the street grew, he stopped talking of bidding for a third presidential term in a vote that had been due to be held next year.\n<\/p>\n
\n Despite the ICC indictments, Bashir had regularly visited regional countries and also Russia.\n<\/p>\n
\n Days before the protests erupted he travelled to Damascus to meet Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, becoming the first Arab leader to do so since the Syrian conflict began in 2011.\n<\/p>\n
\n At home, Bashir last year hosted talks between neighbouring South Sudan's leaders, helping to broker a tentative peace deal after five years of intense conflict in the world's newest country.\n<\/p>\n
\n South Sudan had gained its independence in 2011, when Bashir surprised his critics by giving his blessing to a secession that saw the south take the bulk of Sudan's oil fields, some six years after a peace deal ended two decades of north-south conflict.\n<\/p>\n
\n He also joined a Saudi-led coalition against Shiite rebels in Yemen, improving ties with resource-rich Gulf nations, although the policy had been criticised by his opponents at home.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bashir, who has two wives and no children, was born in 1944 in Hosh Bannaga, north of Khartoum, to a farming family.\n<\/p>\n
\n He entered the military at a young age, rising through the ranks and joining an elite parachute regiment.\n<\/p>\n
\n He fought alongside the Egyptian army in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 1989, then a brigade commander, he led a bloodless coup against the democratically elected government.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bashir was backed by the National Islamic Front of his then mentor, the late Hassan al-Turabi.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Hosting bin Laden -\n<\/p>\n
\n Under Turabi's influence he led Sudan towards a more radical brand of Islam, hosting Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden and sending jihadist volunteers to fight in the country's civil war with the south Sudanese.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 1993, Washington put Sudan on its list of \"state sponsors of terrorism\" and four years later slapped Khartoum with a trade embargo -- only lifted in 2017 -- over charges that included human rights abuses.\n<\/p>\n
\n Bashir sought to end Sudan's isolation in 1999, ousting Turabi from his inner circle.\n<\/p>\n
\n But when insurgents launched a rebellion in Darfur in 2003, his government's decision to unleash the armed forces and allied militia brought him further international criticism.\n<\/p>\n
\n More than 300,000 people have been killed in the Darfur conflict, the UN says, and more than two million displaced.\n<\/p>\n
\n Since 2011, Bashir also faced insurgencies in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, launched by the Sudan People's Liberation Army-North.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, long wanted on genocide and war crimes charges, was finally brought down in a popular uprising by the very people he ruled with an iron fist for 30 years. One of Africa's longest-serving presidents, the 75-year-old had remained defiant in the face of months-long protests that left dozens of demonstrators dead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-40964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n