Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani became Khatmiyyat and the
People's Democratic Party (PDP) leader after the death of his father
Ali al-Mirghani in 1968.
Ismail al-Azhari and al-Mirghani reunited in December 1967 in the presence of King
Faisal of Saudi Arabia, to end the division between the
National Unionist Party and the PDP under the
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which was subsequently led by al-Azhari.
Sharif Hussein al-Hindi became the DUP leader after al-Azhari death in 1969, and al-Mirghani became the leader after al-Hindi death in 1982. Following the
1985 coup d'état, the DUP formed a coalition government with their
historical rival the
National Umma Party, with his youngest brother
Ahmed al-Mirghani becoming the
President of Sudan. The DUP was banned after the coup. In November 1988, al-Mirghani met the
Sudan People's Liberation Movement John Garang in
Addis Ababa to forge a peace agreement to stop the
Second Sudanese Civil War. However, these efforts were short lived following the
1989 coup d'état by military officer
Omar al-Bashir and
Hassan al-Turabi, leader of the
National Islamic Front. Following the coup, al-Mirghani was placed under house arrest in November 1989 and was released by February 1990. Al-Mirghani left Sudan to
London in 2013 after disagreements within his party, then left it to settle in
Cairo. In 2014, he received Sudan's
Order of the Republic from President Omar al-Bashir. On 22 November 2022 after the
2019 revolution and
Sudan transition to democracy, Egyptian President
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi issued a decision to transfer the head of the Sudanese DUP, Mohamed Osman al-Mirghani, from Cairo to Sudan on a private plane after voluntary exile in
Egypt. Upon his return, al-Mirghani was received by tens of thousands of his sect followers. He returned to Cairo the following year. During the
Sudanese civil war, al-Mirghani supported the
Sudanese Armed Forces against the
Rapid Support Forces. == References ==