MU professor faces big hurdles in bid for Sudanese presidency

Stuart H. Loory, Lee Hills Chair in Free-Press Studies, Missouri School of Journalism: MU history professor Abdullahi Ali Ibrahim is planning to run for president of Sudan in elections next February. Professor Ibrahim has taught sub-Saharan and Islamic history here for the past 15 years. One opponent will be sitting president Omar al-Bashir, who is now under indictment by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. Bashir has been tough on his opponents, recently jailing an opposition party leader for two years. In 1971 before President Bashir, Professor Ibrahim was jailed for two years for his political activities. Sudan is not the kind of country where an electoral campaign can be considered politics-as-usual. It has the largest landmass of any country in Africa. A civil war between the north and south ranged from 1956 to 2005. An uprising in Darfur, in western Sudan, resulted in perhaps 300,000 killed by government forces. President Bashir expelled 13 international relief organizations last month after his indictment. Why is Professor Ibrahim running for president of Sudan?