Gaafar Muhammad an-Nimeiry (otherwise known as Jaafar Nimeiry, Gaafar Nimeiry or Ga'far Muhammad an-Numayri; born 1 January 1930) (Arabic: جعفر محمد النميري) was the President of Sudan from 1971 to 1985. He was born in Wad Nubawi Omdurman in central Sudan, and is the son of a postman and the great grandson of a tribal leader from the Wad Nimeiry region in Dongola.

In 1952 Nimeiry graduated from the Sudan Military College, where he was greatly influenced by the ideas of Gamal Abdel Nasser's Free Officers Movement, which gained power in Egypt that same year. In 1966 Nimeiry graduated from the United States Army Command College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Three years later he helped lead a military coup of the civilian government of Ismail al-Azhari, shortly after which he was named Prime Minister of Sudan. He used his position to enact a number of socialist and Pan-Arabist reforms.

Nimeiry successfully weathered a coup attempt by Sadiq al-Mahdi in 1970, and in 1971 was briefly removed from power by a Communist coup, before being restored. Later in 1971 he was elected President, and succeeded in ending the 17-year civil war between north and south Sudan the next year with the Addis Ababa Agreement.

In 1981 Nimeiry, pressured by his Islamic opponents, and still President of Sudan, began a dramatic shift toward Islamist political governance. In 1983 he imposed sharia, or Islamic law, throughout the country - alienating the predominantly Christian and animist south. In violation of the Addis Ababa Agreement he dissolved the southern Sudanese government, thereby prompting a renewal of the civil war. In 1985 Nimeiry authorised the execution of the peaceful political dissident and Islamic reformist Mahmoud Mohamed Taha after Taha -- who was first accused of religious sedition in the 1960s when Sudan's President was Ismail al-Azhari -- was declared an apostate by a Sudanese court. Shortly thereafter on Apr. 6, 1985, Nimeiry was overthrown in a military coup led by Gen. Abdel Rahman Swar al-Dahab and replaced in the following year's elections by the pro-Islamist leader, Sadiq al-Mahdi, who had attempted a coup against him in 1970.

Nimeiry lived in exile in Egypt from 1985 to 1999, in a villa situated in Heliopolis, Cairo. He returned to Sudan in May 1999 to a raptorous and populous welcome that surprised many of his detractors. Today he is affiliated to the National Congress Party.

* 1930 January 1: Born in Wad Nubawi, Omdurman, as the son of a postman.

* 1952: Graduates from the Sudan Military College, and joins the Khartoum garrison.

* 1960: Joins a group of military officers working according to pan-Arab, socialist ideas and influenced by the Free Officers Movement that was led by Gamal Abdul Nasser in Egypt.

* 1966: Graduates from the US Army Command College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

* 1969: Together with four other officers he overthrows the government, and becomes prime minister and chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC). He starts a campaign aiming at reforming Sudan's economy through nationalization of banks and industries as well as some land reforms.

* 1970-1978: A number of bilateral investment treaties are signed between Sudan and several states: Netherlands Aug. 22, 1970, Switzerland Feb. 17, 1974, Egypt May 28, 1977, France July 31, 1978

* 1971 July: Nimeiry is overthrown by a Communist coup, but soon returns to power. **September: Nimeiri wins a referendum with 98.6% of the votes. He now starts 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 that are signed.

* 1972: With the Addis Ababa Agreement, autonomy is granted to the non-Muslim southern region of Sudan, which brought peace and stability to the region which had witnessed civil war since 1955, before Sudan's independence.

* 1974-1984: Oil and gas exploration begins in earnest in the country. Chevron Corporation is awarded concessions in the southern and middle parts of the Red Sea and carries out aero-magnetic and gravity surveys. Dry gas and condensate is discovered in two wells.

* 1975 September: a military coup led by Brigadier Hassan Hussein Osman, failed to remove Nimeiry from power. General Elbagir, Nimeiry's deputy, led a counter coup that brought Nimiery back within few hours. Brigadier Osman was wounded and later tried in a court Marshall and executed.

* 1976 July: A bloody, armed, cross-border attempt to overthrow him by Sadiq al Mahdi from Libya is put down.

** 1976: Chevron discovers the Suakin gas field. ** 1979: Chevron makes its first oil discovery in Abu Jabra #1, west of Muglad, where an 8 million barrels reserve and a 1,000 barrels per day (b/d) production rate are estimated. ** 1982, Chevron drills 22 discovery, appraisal and production wells. Chevron estimated a total oil reserve of 593 million barrels and a production rate of 3,600 b/d.

* 1978 18 July - 12 July 1979: Nimeiry elected Chairman of the Organization of African Unity.

* 1981: Nimeiry allies with the Muslim Brotherhood.

* 1983: Nimeiry imposes Islamic law, Sharia, for all of Sudan. The administrative boundaries of the south are also reformed. In the south, the civil war restarts.

* 1985 April 6: While Nimeiry is on an official visit to the United States of America, a bloodless military coup led by his defence minister ousts him from power.

* 1985-1999: Nimeiry lives in Egypt.

* 1999 May 22: Returns to Sudan from exile.

* 2005 March 2: Nimeiry's party The Alliance of the Peoples' Working Forces merges with the ruling National Congress Party of Sudan. The National Congress Party negotiated an end to Sudan's civil war that was signed in a Comprehensive Peace Agreement on January 9th 2005.

* Encyclopedia of the Orient entry on Nimeiry * http://www.bradford.ac.uk/acad/confres/monitor/UNCmonitor7.pdf * http://travel2.nytimes.com/2004/07/15/travel/NYT_ALMANAC_WORLD_SUDAN.html?ex=1171602000&en=ce0d41739b133a6a&ei=5070 * [www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/Sudan.htm]