Japan-trained Darfur rebel chief turned Sudan finance minister

KHARTOUM: Sudan's new finance minister, Gibril Ibrahim, is a veteran rebel leader who fought against marginalisation under ousted president Omar al-Bashir. Now, the Japan-educated former professor holds the keys to the country's economic future.

Ibrahim, 66, has for nearly a decade led the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a key rebel group in Sudan's western Darfur region that played a major role in the bitter conflict which erupted there in 2003.

A polyglot and holder of a PhD in economics from Japan, he now is part of a government tasked with steering the country through a transitional period following Bashir's ouster in April 2019.

"Ibrahim's political expertise played a role in choosing him as finance minister," said Mohamed Latif, a Sudanese analyst and columnist. "His appointment also served as assurance that the government is committing to the peace deal with rebel groups."

In October, Sudan's transitional government signed a peace deal with key rebel groups including JEM which stipulated giving rebels top positions in the government and in a parliament that is yet to be formed.

Ibrahim's appointment came as Sudan faces daunting economic challenges, including galloping inflation of over 300 percent and severe bread and fuel shortages that have triggered protests in several parts of the country.

Darfur conflict

Ibrahim was born in 1955 to a family from the African Zaghawa ethnic group in North Darfur.

He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Khartoum University before receiving a scholarship in Japan, where he completed his master's degree and doctorate in economics and became a fluent Japanese speaker.

He also taught in universities in Saudi Arabia and set up several private air and cargo transport companies in Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Chad.

As a young man, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood group and was once affiliated with the Islamist movement that brought Bashir to power in a 1989 military coup.

He later turned against the movement to join the Darfur insurgency led by African minority rebels who complained of discrimination under Bashir's Arab-dominated government.

Though largely focused on his career in trade and economy, Ibrahim says his interest in politics goes back to the days he "was a high school student".

"I even led a Muslim student union when I was studying in Japan," he told France 24 in a 2016 interview.

He said it was the marginalisation of the people of Darfur -- where a conflict from 2003 killed 300,000 people and displaced 2.5 million -- that pushed him to play a more active role in Sudan's politics.

"It is not possible for any sane person with a conscience to stand idle before all this," he said.