Qualla: 1976 Sudanese coup attempt

1976 Sudanese coup attempt: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Each of them carried two suitcases. One was full of money. The other held a disassembled Kalashnikov and ammunition. Two thousand Sudanese opposition fighters, trained in Libya under Muammar Gaddafi's protection, slipped into Khartoum in early July 1976 wearing traditional white jellabiyas and araqi shirts, staying in local hotels so as not to draw attention. They had been told the capital would rise to greet them as liberators. They had been told wrong.

1976 Sudanese coup attempt: The Jeddah Meeting

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Four years earlier, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia had arranged a meeting at the Al-Hamra Palace in Jeddah between President Gaafar Nimeiry and opposition leader Sharif Hussein al-Hindi. The king wanted the two men to end their hostilities. They talked for six hours. Al-Hindi raised...

1976 Sudanese coup attempt: Two Thousand Men in White Robes

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On 2 July 1976, at three in the afternoon, residents of Khartoum heard gunshots and bomb blasts in scattered neighborhoods. The attackers wore long white pants and the long white araqi shirts that many Sudanese villagers wore daily. They asked passers-by for directions to the Gen...

1976 Sudanese coup attempt: Three Days of House-to-House

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The insurgents engaged in three days of house-to-house fighting in Khartoum and Omdurman. According to Sudanese accounts, 3,000 people died - a figure that included hundreds of civilians caught between the factions. Officers and soldiers of the armed forces, caught at their homes...

1976 Sudanese coup attempt: The Turn Toward Sharia

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The failed coup had consequences that reshaped Sudan. Nimeiry, having defeated a secular-opposition uprising backed by a Muslim opposition leader, moved politically toward a 'National Reconciliation' in 1977 with some opposition figures, including Sadiq al-Mahdi himself, who had ...

1976 Sudanese coup attempt: From the Air

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The three-city metropolis of Khartoum, Khartoum North, and Omdurman fills the angle where the Blue Nile meets the White Nile. The Presidential Palace sits on the east bank, within central Khartoum, near streets where the 1976 fighting happened and where almost every subsequent Su...