It is the top investor in Tunisia after France but its long support for Ghannouchi and other Islamists linked to the Muslim Brotherhood has strained relations with secular politicians (AC Vol 57 No 6 The power struggle after Hassan el Turabi)...
This follows the shock-waves around the death of its godfather Hassan Abdullah el Turabi (AC Vol 57 No 6 Can't stay can't go)...
When Hassan Abdullah el Turabi the man who had presided over the Islamist movement in his country for five decades died on 5 March his dream of a Sudanese Islamic state may have died with him...
Hassan el Turabi: Life and death • 1932: Born Kassala Eastern Sudan son of a Sufi scholar and judge...
Paris last month refused a visa to the Islamist regime's founder Hassan el Turabi Africa Confidential hears...
Many see Khartoum's hand in the sudden change especially that of Hassan Abdullah el Turabi an enthusiastic participant at the regime's National Dialogue in Khartoum...
There the only Sudanese party apart from the ruling National Congress Party was that of Omer's former boss godfather of the National Islamic Front Hassan el Turabi...
OppositionThe three leading Darfur insurgent organisations joined the armed opposition alliance the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) in 2011: • Justice and Equality Movement: issued first statement November 2001 as Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement; JEM led 2001-11 by Khalil Ibrahim Mohamed former minister in NIF regime; main stated aim: to end marginalisation and racism nationally; founders mostly disaffected Zaghawa Kobe from Hassan Abdullah el Turabi's NIF; December 2011 Khalil killed in air attack; his brother Gibreel Ibrahim Mohamed elected Chairman; JEM refused to sign 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA); May 2008 it attacked Omdurman; in 2011 it joined SRF; most recent clashes with government in April in Goz Dango south-west of Nyala...
The other seats are held either by NCP dissidents or by 'tawali' parties ('appendages') a term coined by the NCP's godfather Hassan el Turabi...
The regime's original plan for National Dialogue involved a 'seven-plus-seven' formula that included parties ostensibly in opposition but close to the NCP such as Hassan Abdullah el Turabi's Popular Congress Party which left the NCP in 1999-2000...
Many are still suspicious of JEM's NCP roots and its links to Hassan Abdullah el Turabi whose Popular Congress Party is unlike several other Islamist splinters not boycotting the elections...
Another faction Hassan el Turabi's Popular Congress Party was still on board as AC went to press but the NCP's veteran guru was brandishing his legal credentials to complain about the constitutional amendments...