The second stage of Sudan's October Revolution removed Ibrahim Abboud himself. After dissolving his junta at the end of October 1964, Abboud had stayed on as head of state alongside the transitional civilian government of Sirr al-Khatim al-Khalifa, an arrangement the revolutionary street and the United National Front regarded as unfinished business, especially after his attempt to assemble a new Supreme Council had already reignited strikes in late October. Under continuing pressure, Abboud resigned as head of state in mid-November 1964, the sources dating it November 15 or 16, ending the country's first period of military rule; a collective civilian Sovereignty Council constituted in December 1964 assumed the head of state function, presiding until the April 1965 elections and the return of parliamentary government.
Abboud, in the accounts fetched for this record, retreated into retirement; the transitional arrangements negotiated by the army caretakers had already shielded members of the old regime from prosecution for acts in power.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: General Ibrahim Abboud, forced to resign as head of state on November 15 or 16, 1964. DATASET NOTE: the dataset codes his fate as fled the country, but the sources fetched in this session state that he retreated into retirement, without documenting flight or exile; the discrepancy is recorded rather than resolved.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Ibrahim Abboud (head of state, forced to resign)
Sirr al-Khatim al-Khalifa (transitional prime minister)
The United National Front (coalition maintaining pressure for his removal)
The Second Sovereignty Council (collective civilian head of state from December 1964)
Sources
After the transitional government was established on 30 October, Abboud still remained head of state, but resigned due to pressure on 15 November; the transitional government went on to give women universal suffrage, purge corrupt officials, lift the state of emergency, and restore press freedom.
Abboud was forced to resign on 15 November in favor of a civilian provisional government and retreated into retirement, ending the Republic of the Sudan's first period of military rule.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, Ibrahim Abboudopen source ↗
An account of the 1969 coup's background dates the culmination of the October Revolution to Abboud's resignation on 16 November 1964, with an interim government formed under the Sovereignty Council and Sirr al-Khatim al-Khalifa as prime minister and parliamentary democracy restored.
The Second Sudanese Sovereignty Council, constituted on 3 December 1964 as a collective civilian head of state with a monthly rotating presidency, emerged from the October Revolution and oversaw the transition, organizing the April 1965 general elections after which power passed to the elected civilian government.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, Sudanese Sovereignty Council (1964-1965)open source ↗
Editorial Note
Companion to record 1964-10-27: that record carries the dissolution of the junta as an institution, this one Abboud's personal removal as residual head of state; the two are stages of a single revolution and the dataset's forced resignation label fits the second stage precisely. Date variance: November 15 in two sources, November 16 in a third and in the dataset. Fate discrepancy flagged in the target_leader field: the dataset's fled the country is not corroborated by this session's sources, which describe retirement; one Sovereignty Council account even gives a December 3 date for the resignation, an outlier noted but not adopted. Arc note: the restored parliamentary system lasted until Nimeiri's coup of May 25, 1969.
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: General Ibrahim Abboud, forced to resign as head of state on November 15 or 16, 1964. DATASET NOTE: the dataset codes his fate as fled the country, but the sources fetched in this session state that he retreated into retirement, without documenting flight or exile; the discrepancy is recorded rather than resolved..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; fled the country. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
“Martial Law Ordered in Sudan as Riots and Violence Continue,” October 29, 1964
“New Sudanese regime Named to end military rule,” October 31, 1964
“General Leaves Sudanese regime,” November 16, 1964
“Upset in the Sudan Civilian Overthrow of Military Junta Viewed as Salutary Reversal of Form,” November 17, 1964
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →