Sirr Al-Khatim Al-Khalifa

The day after his death, Al-Khalifa's burial at Al-Bakri Cemetery on 19 February 2006, was attended by thousands of his colleagues, politicians, educators and students.

In 1973, Nimeiry appointed Al-Khalifa as Minister of Education. He assumed this position for two years, when he was appointed in 1982 as President Advisor on Educational Affairs until the end of Nimeiry’s era in 1985.

Al-Khalifa was appointed as ambassador to Italy in 1966. In March 1968, he was transferred to become ambassador to Britain. On 25 May 1969, when Gaafar Nimeiry seized power, Al-Khalifa was bluntly informed about his end of service and stripped of his diplomatic passport. He had to report immediately to Khartoum. Some believe that this blunt telex was a reply from Babiker Awadallah, former chief justice and the new prime minister, and Nimeiry’s regime to Al-Khalifa’s betrayal of the October Revolution by rushing the 1965 elections thus handing power to Umma-PDP parties. After performing the diplomatic farewell to the Queen, Al-Khalifa returned to Khartoum in the beginning of June 1969.

Al-Khalifa called upon establishing the Round Table Conference with the presence of 24 Southern politicians and 18 Northern party representatives to address the problem of the South. The conference was originally scheduled in Juba between 16–29 March 1965; however, several burnings and rampages in Juba signaled the migration of the conference to Khartoum.

However, the conference reached a deadlock and was concluded with the establishment of Twelve-Men Committee, consisting of the participating political parties. Al-Khalifa was forced to resign and the government promised to schedule elections by June 1965. With a rushed elections conducted in the North excluding the South for security reasons, this ended the transitional government of Al-Khalifa and started the second democratic phase of Sudan under Mohamed Ahmed Mahjub.

In 1964, the Abbud regime was facing numerous instabilities that led to a major strike from the different working sectors of the society. The strike, known as the October Revolution, led to rioting and numerous deaths and forced President Abbud to dissolve the government and prepare for civilian rule.

In 1962, Al-Khalifa was appointed as a dean of Khartoum Technical Institute (now Sudan University of Science and Technology). He spent two years at the job, and was nicknamed "Father of Technical Education" in Sudan, since he devoted great effort and time for this newly established technical school.

In 1950, after the abandonment of the Southern Policy, a colonial policy that isolated Southern Sudan from education and economic development, Al-Khalifa was appointed as a Provincial Education Officer at Equatoria Province in Juba. After seven years of success at the job, he was promoted to become Assistant Director of Education for Southern Provinces, the highest educational position in the region. During this time, he increased the number of schools and introduced the Arabic language in the region. Spending 10 years in South Sudan, spreading education and relating to the once-totally-closed South, he became a very favorable and respected character in the whole of Sudan, South and North.

In 1944 Al-Khalifa furthered his education by attending Exeter College, University of Oxford. In 1946 he returned to Sudan to resume his teaching job at Bakht Arrida.

In the early 1920s he attained his primary education at Ed Dueim Rural School and Berber Intermediate School. In 1937 he graduated from Gordon Memorial College studying Teachers Education. Al-Khalifa became a teacher at Bakht Arrida from 1938 till 1944, until he moved to Great Britain to continue his education.

Sirr Al-Khatim Al-Khalifa Al-Hassan (Arabic: سر الختم الخليفة الحسن, 1 January 1919 – 18 February 2006) was a Sudanese politician, ambassador and an elite educator, who served as the 5th Prime Minister of Sudan. He was famous for his great legacy in education and founding prints for Ministry of Education in Sudan, and as the executive Prime Minister in the October Regime.