Gaafar Numeiri; Sudan leader backed Camp David accord

Gaafar Numeiri became Sudan's president in 1969 and held the post for 16 years, despite a coup attempt by the communist left in the early 1970s.

Mr. Numeiri is also known for signing a peace accord in 1972 to end a rebellion by southern Sudan that started in 1955. The agreement gave the mostly Christian and animist south a degree of autonomy from the mostly Muslim north.

But Mr. Numeiri imposed Islamic law, or Sharia, in the country in 1983, increasing tension with the south. Shortly thereafter, he dissolved the southern Sudanese government in violation of the 1972 peace accord, reigniting the civil war with the north that finally ended in 2005.

Mr. Numeiri was a close ally of the United States and was the only Arab leader to support President Anwar Sadat of Egypt after he signed the Camp David accords with Israel in 1978 that led to peace between the two countries.

Mr. Numeiri was overthrown in a bloodless coup in 1985 while on an official visit to the United States.

He lived in exile in Egypt from 1985 until 1999, when President Omar al-Bashir allowed him to return to Sudan.

Bashir, who is Muslim, praised Mr. Numeiri in a statement yesterday as a "patriotic leader" whose establishment of Islamic law set "the basis for the rule of justice."

The state news agency did not give the cause of Mr. Numeiri's death and said he leaves his wife.