Career
Initially successful, after several days the Revolutionary government collapsed when Nimeiry was freed by loyalist military units. Following the failed coup attempt Atta and the other ringleaders were executed. Atta was born on 12 March 1936 in Omdurman in what was then Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
He went to graduate from high school in 1957, and immediately joined the Sudanese Air Force, graduating from the Air Force Academy as a Second Lieutenant in 1959. He then proceeded to study in the United Kingdom from 1962 to 1963, in West Germany from 1963 to 1964, and in the United Arab Republic & United States in 1965. Following this he served with the Sudanese Army's Southern Command from 1966 to 1968, before going on to serve as a Military Attache from 1968 to 1969 at the Sudanese Embassy in Bonn, then the capital of West Germany.
Atta served in several posts, including as Assistant Prime Minister (with a porfolio focusing on agriculture) before being arrested and removed from all posts on 16 November 1970. The coup was initially successful and Atta became the new Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, Vice President, and Minister of Defense in the new Revolutionary Command Council. The new government was however beset by infighting.
On 23 July Nimeiry loyalists freed Nimeiry and returned him to power. Atta was summarily marshaled and sentenced to death alongside the coups other leaders, and was executed later the same day by firing squad.
