Thousands in Khartoum mourn former leader

Thousands of mourners crowded the streets of Khartoum on Wednesday at the funeral of former Sudanese head of state Ahmed Ali al-Mirghani.

Mirghani was president between 1986 and 1989, when he was overthrown in a bloodless coup that brought the current president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, to power.

Mirghani's body was flown into Khartoum on Wednesday, accompanied by his brother Mohammed Osman al-Mirghani, head of the opposition DUP party, who returned for the ceremony after 15 years of self-imposed exile.

State media reported Mirghani died on Sunday aged 67 in the Egyptian city of Alexandria.

"He was a man who deeply loved his country," DUP General Secretary Jalal Yousif Al-Digair told state media.

Mirghani was the figurehead of Sudan's last democratically elected government, a series of unstable coalitions controlled by prime minister Sadeq al-Mahdi, now head of the opposition UMMA party.

Large crowds gathered at Khartoum airport to meet the former leader's body, then at a garden close to the River Nile belonging to the Mirghani family and finally for prayers at Al Sayed Ali Mosque in north Khartoum.

State media said he would be buried in the Khartoum graveyard of his family, which claims a lineage back to the Prophet Mohammad (pbuh).