Ahmad Ali Al-Mirghani (Arabic: أحمد الميرغني; 16 August 1941 – 2 November 2008) was a Sudanese politician who served as the third President of Sudan from 1986 to 1989, when the democratically elected government was overthrown by a military coup led by Omar al-Bashir.[1][2]
Following the coup Al-Mirghani lived in Alexandria, Egypt. He returned to Sudan shortly before his death and lobbied for peace in the War in Darfur.[4] He actively worked on the Darfur file and was chosen as the head of the Darfur Circle in the Democratic Unionist Party. His final trip abroad was to Libya where he held a number of meetings with Darfur rebel groups and the Libyan leadership regarding the solutions to the Western Sudan problem.
Death
Al-Mirghani died in Egypt on November 2, 2008, at the age of 67. Several Sudanese politicians including al-Bashir travelled to the Mirghani base in Khartoum to mourn the former president.[4] His body was flown to Khartoum on November 5, and his funeral was held there on the same day. The funeral procession travelled from the airport in the south of the capital Khartoum through the city streets to the north of the capital, where he was buried.[6]
Personal life
His daughter currently resides in London with her four sons, two of whom are also at colleges that are a part of the University of London.
In April 2016, al-Mirghani was named in the Panama Papers as owner of Orange Star Corporation, which was created in 1995 and based in the British Virgin Islands, an offshore tax haven that is often used for tax-evasion purposes. The Panama Papers revealed that Orange Star bought an apartment North of the Hyde Park area in London for £600,000. Today, apartments in the same area are sold for over 2 million British pounds. In 2008 at the time of al-Mirghani's death through the company he held 2.72 million US dollars in assets.[7][8]
