Prof. Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil. (-).

Professor Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil, the former Chairperson of Sudan’s Referendum Commission, which oversaw South Sudan’s overwhelming vote for self-determination in 2011, died on Tuesday at the age of 94 years, a close family source said.

A friend of Khalil’s family confirmed the veteran lawyer’s death in a short social media statement seen by Eye Radio on Tuesday.

“Professor Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil died today in the United States after a short illness,” said Salah Elamin.

Professor Mohamed Khalil passed peacefully in the United States surrounded by family including his three children.

As head of the referendum commission, he declared in 2011 that some 99% of South Sudanese voted to separate from the north and be an independent state.

– Obituary –  

Prof Khalil was born in the 1930s in Omdurman and became the first dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Khartoum after Sudan’s Independence in 1956.

He also worked in law and the diplomatic corps, and was a member of the political bureau of the National Umma Party led by Sadiq al-Mahdi.

Prof. Khalil was appointed Sudan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs in the first elected government after the October 1964 Revolution from the Umma Party, before he later assumed the position of the Minister of Justice.

He worked as an advisor to the International Monetary Fund, and after the March-April uprising, he assumed the presidency of the association.

Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil is one of the most prominent Sudanese lawyers – having gone through many academic, political and professional experiences since the sixties.

When the May 1969 coup led by Sudan’s former president Gen. Jaafar Nimeiri took place, Khalil immigrated to Kuwait and worked as an advisor to the International Monetary Fund.

After the fall of Nimeiri in 1985, Khalil returned to be appointed as President of the Constituent Assembly before resigning and immigrating again to the United States.

His appointment as head of the referendum commission sparked controversy in Sudan, with some linking the position to his relationship with the United States, and his cooperation with the American Centre for Strategic Studies.