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Sudan: Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, President of the Sudan (1989 -), Addis Ababa, 2009

Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir (born 1 January 1944) is the current President of Sudan and the head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi.

In October 2004, al-Bashir's government negotiated an end to the Second Sudanese Civil War, one of the longest-running and deadliest wars of the 20th century, by granting limited autonomy to Southern Sudan dominated by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). Since then, however, there has been a violent conflict in Darfur that has resulted in death tolls between 200,000 and 400,000.

Al-Bashir is controversial figure both in Sudan and worldwide. Al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state ever indicted by the International Criminal Ccourt as well as the first to be charged with genocide.