Sudan’s Al-Mirgahni to return home after 15 years for burial of his brother
November 3, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – The leader of the opposition Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Mohamed Osman Al-Mirghani would return to Khartoum on Wednesday with the body of his young brother Ahmed.
The body of the late Sudanese president Ahmed Al-Mirghani will be flown to Khartoum for burial on Wednesday. He died in Egypt’s coastal city of Alexandria on Sunday.
The DUP leader, who left Sudan in 1993, would return to Khartoum after 15 years of absence. He would stay only for a very short time and would return to Cairo after the burial of his brother.
In a statement released on Monday, the opposition Democratic Unionist Party, which is led by the late president’s brother Mohamed Osman Al-Mirghani, announced the arrangements for the funeral.
It said the body would be accompanied by his brother, who is the leader of the DUP and head of the Khatmiya Sufi religious Muslim brotherhood.
Despite the signing of a peace agreement on the democratic transition in the country with the Sudanese government, Al-Mirghani still demands Khartoum to implement an accord dealing mainly with the suppression of anti-democratic laws and to reform the public serve and the army.
The Cairo Agreement signed on June 18, 2005 is sponsored by Egyptian government; however Cairo has proven its incapacity to press Khartoum for the implementation of the deal.
The Sudanese government sent a special plane to Egypt to bring back the body Ahmed Al-Mirghani, 67. He will be buried on Wednesday at the Sayed Ali al-Mirghani grand mosque in Khartoum North, across the river from the presidential palace.
Ahmed Al-Mirghani was the latest democratic head of state in the Sudan. He was dislodged from his position when the Islamist officers led by Omer Hassan Al-Bashir toppled a democratically elected government in June 1989.
(ST)