Sudan's Al-Mahdi Passes away due to Coronavirus

On Thursday, Sudanese media confirmed the death of the head of the nationalist Umma Party, Sadiq Al-Mahdi, of his infection with coronavirus.

The announcement of the news of the death of the "Mahdi" came hours after the Sudanese Umma Party denied reports about the deteriorating health of its president, who was infected with Coronavirus a month ago.

However, family sources confirmed to "Reuters" that the prominent Sudanese politician and former prime minister died in a hospital in the UAE.

On Tuesday, the Umma Party issued an appeal to the Sudanese to pray to Imam Al-Mahdi so that God bless him with a cure.

The appeal received a great response from the Sudanese people, the internet activists, who rushed to pray to him.

However, the appeal launched by the party raised the concerns of the Sudanese on his health; As he was followed by many rumours of his deteriorating health.

Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi was infected with the Coronavirus last October and was transferred to receive treatment in the United Arab Emirates.

Imam Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi was born in December 1935 in Omdurman, the largest city in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

Al-Mahdi has extensive political and economic experience; He obtained a master's degree in economics at Oxford University in 1957.

He assumed the leadership of the Ansar and the leadership of the United National Front following the death of his father, Siddiq al-Mahdi, in 1961, before he was elected Prime Minister of Sudan between 1966 and 1967 and then in 1986 and 1989.

Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi maintains a wide stature among the Sudanese. He was one of those who opposed the defunct Brotherhood regime headed by Omar Al-Bashir in 2014, and he had been thrown into prison for that.

He was arrested several times during the years 1969, 1973, 1983 and 1989, and after the revolution of Dec 2018, he became president of the Sudan Call Forces, a coalition that includes civil parties and civil society organizations.

The Sudanese Library has several books, most notably (The Future of Islam in Sudan) and (Sudan To Where).