Ibrahim Abboud in the context of List of Presidents of Sudan

The Republic of Sudan was established as an independent sovereign state upon the termination of the condominium of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, over which sovereignty had been vested jointly in Egypt and the United Kingdom. On December 19, 1955, the Sudanese parliament, under Ismail al-Azhari's leadership, unanimously adopted a declaration of independence that became effective on January 1, 1956. During the early years of the Republic, despite political divisions, a parliamentary system was established with a five-member Supreme Commission as head of state. In 1958, after a military coup, General Ibrahim Abboud was installed as president. This government was disestablished when a coup led by Colonel Gaafar Nimeiry founded the Democratic Republic of Sudan in 1969.

On 25 May 1969, several young officers calling themselves the Free Officers Movement (after the Egyptian officers who instigated the Egyptian revolution of 1952) seized power in Sudan in a coup d'état and started the Nimeiry era, also called the May Regime, in the history of Sudan. Gaafar Nimeiry ruled as president with the Sudanese Socialist Union (SSU). At the conspiracy's core were nine officers led by Colonel Gaafar Nimeiry, who had been implicated in plots against the Abboud regime. Nimeiry's coup preempted plots by other groups, most of which involved army factions supported by the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP), Arab nationalists, or conservative religious groups. He justified the coup on the grounds that civilian politicians had paralyzed the decision-making process, had failed to deal with the country's economic and regional problems, and had left Sudan without a permanent constitution.

The Sudanese Communist Party (abbr. SCP; Arabic: الحزب الشيوعي السوداني, romanized: Al-Hizb al-Shuyui al-Sudani) is a communist party in Sudan. Founded in 1946, it was a major force in Sudanese politics in the early post-independence years, and was one of the two most influential communist parties in the Arab world, the other being the Iraqi Communist Party.

The party helped overthrow the military government of Ibrahim Abboud in the October 1964 Revolution and joined the subsequent transitional government. Anti-communists in the post-revolution government attempted to outlaw the party but were unsuccessful; the SCP contested two parliamentary elections in the 1960s.