Born Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir on the 1st January 1944 in Hosh Bannaga, Sudan, he is a Sudanese politician, best known to the world as the seventh President of the aforementioned country, serving in the position since 1989.
Have you ever wondered how rich Omar al-Bashir is, as of mid- 2017? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that al-Bashir’s net worth is as high as $1 billion, an amount earned through his political career. However, there is a strong suspicion that Omar has billions of dollars in foreign bank accounts.
Omar al-Bashir Net Worth $1 Billion
Omar is of Arab ancestry; his descendants come from the Al-Bedairyya Al-Dahmashyya tribe, which is a Bedouin tribe and now a part of a much larger Ja’alin coalition. He spent his early years in his hometown, and then moved to the national capital Khartoum, where he finished secondary education.
Once he finished secondary school, Omar joined the Sudanese Army, and was soon sent to study at the Egyptian Military Academy in Cairo, while he also finished studies at the Sudan Military Academy in Khartoum in 1966. During his military service, in no time he was promoted to paratroop officer, and then served in the Egyptian Army in the Yom Kippur War, in which Egypt and Syria joined forces against Israel. Two years later he became a Sudanese military attaché in the United Arab Emirates, and on return to his home country, was named a garrison commander, then in 1981 he was appointed as the commander of an armored parachute brigade.
Throughout the ‘80s Omar was building a name for himself in the military of Sudan, and reached the rank of colonel. He led the group of army officers in the Sudanese coup d’état in 1989 when he and his loyal officers dethroned Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi in a bloodless military coup. He formed a military government that put all political bodies and operations out of power, and implemented an Islamic legal code for the whole country. He assumed several leading positions of the country, including chief of state, chief of the armed forces, prime minister and minister of defense, while also creating the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation, which was the leading political body of the state at the time, with Omar as its Chairman. Before he became President officially, he collaborated with Hassan al-Turabi, who at the time was the leader of the National Islamic Front, and the two started implementing Sharia law across the country.
He named himself President of Sudan in 1993 and disbanded all political parties that were opposed him. Three years later, elections were held and Omar became President of Sudan with a quasi-legal support. Since then, he has been elected President two more times, however, the elections are regarded as questionable for their validity, and Omar himself has been accused of corruption, but he remains Sudanese President.
Aside from corruption, Omar’s reign is also marked by the second civil war which lasted until 2005, and resulted in creation of a new country, South Sudan in 2011, then war in Darfur, for which he was charged with mass crimes against civilians, however, apparently due to the lack of evidence, charges were dropped. Subsequently, military intervention in Yemen has occured, during which Omar joined Saudi Arabia against the Shia Houthis and other Islamic people that are loyal to dethroned Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Omar’s net worth has benefited greatly from his reign, since Sudan has become one of the most oil exploited countries, from which sales Omar has massively benefited.
Regarding his personal life, Omar has two wives; he is married to his cousin Fatima Khalid, and Widad Babiker Omer. Omar doesn’t have his own children but is a father to a number of children of his wife Widad, as she was previously married to Ibrahim Shamsaddin, who was a part of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation but had tragically died after his helicopter crashed.
