6. Omar al-Bashir - Sudan
One of the most despicable African dictators, Bashir came to power in Sudan after a coup d'etat in 1989 when Sudan was at the risk of mass starvation. He was a brigadier in the army. He is a bit of an enigma - at once bringing modernisation and positive changes to Sudan (including building roads and oil refineries, establishing new universities, improvements in water pipelines and the establishment of a homegrown car industry). However whenever Bashir is bad, he is down right evil. Sudan is a country riven by civil conflict. In 2005, Bashir signed a peace treaty to end the Second Sudanese Civil War which was a conflict that involved massive loss of life. In southern Sudan there is a region called Darfur where shepherds and farmers fight over land. Libya's doomed president Gaddafi liked to stir things up and neighbouring Chad shared many ethnic ties to Darfur. The two countries pursued their own agenda in Darfur until thousands were dead. 10,000 people is the official death toll according to the Sudanese government but other sources put the true death toll at 200,000 - 400,000 people. It was a massive humanitarian crisis and it was only ended when Chad made amends with Libya - the fighting died out completely with the death of Gaddafi. The International Criminal Court (ICC) accused Bashir of war crimes and crimes against humanity because of the Darfur situation. He was issued with a warrant for his arrest and this is the first time a sitting head of a nation has been charged officially with war crimes. On his usurping of power, Bashir started implementing Sharia law in the north of Sudan. He also issued purges and executions, he banned political parties and press freedom of speech. In 1993, the US declared Sudan a nation that fosters terrorism, and this is confirmed by an invitation to Osama Bin Laden to operate out of Sudan. Insurgency has been rife in Sudan - mainly between the Arab North and the African South. There have been 2 million casualties since it began which makes it one of the most horrific conflicts in contemporary history. luckily Bashir agreed to The UN administering humanitarian aid. There was a peace treaty between North and South in 2005 - stating that Southern Sudan would be autonomous for five years and then vote on independence. South Sudan was introduced to the World community as an independent nation. During the Darfur conflict the Bashir regime regularly killed people to suppress information about what was going on. Journalists were hassled to prevent information about the conflict from bleeding out of Sudan. In 2006, the UN issued peacekeeping troops in a mission called UNAMID. Bashir heavily protested this intervention as hostile parties stationed in a land where they were not needed or welcome. But the addition of further peace keeping troops from the African Union mollified Bashir somewhat. In revenge for his meddling in Darfur, Bashir supported the insurgents in Libya to overthrow and kill Gaddafi. As I said at the beginning, Omar al-Bashir is a complicated man - a mixture of positive and negative elements. He does not understand why he is so hated in the international community. He takes full responsibility for Darfur but insists the conflict was active when he came to power and all he ever tried to do was stop it. Bashir announced in a speech that he wanted the country to end all conflicts and focus on the youth and future of building a peaceful Sudan. Can this dictator rinse himself of the stink of genocide and reform himself as a benevolent tyrant? It remains to be seen.