Leader of the Darfur rebels in Sudan. Dr. Ibrahim led the Darfur-based Justice and Equality Movement, or JEM, which unlike other Darfur rebel groups did not join last year's peace deal signed with the government. Darfur has been in turmoil since 2003, when ethnic African rebels accusing the Arab-dominated Sudanese government of discrimination took up arms against it. The conflict and the related humanitarian crisis has killed an estimated 300,000 people and displaced 2.7m. Served as the state minister for social affairs in Blue Nile in 1997 before taking up the post of advisor to the governor of Southern Sudan in 1998 Khalil Ibrahim resigned in August 1998, several months before the scheduled end of his appointment, and formed a Non-Governmental Organisation called "Fighting Poverty". He then went to the Netherlands to studying for a Masters in Public Health at the University of Maastricht. In August 2001, Ibrahim announced the formation of the Justice and Equality Movement, which received political and financial support from Libya. In June 2006, he co-founded the National Redemption Front rebel group. The leader of the main Darfur rebel group in Sudan Dr. Khalil Ibrahim was reported to be injured two days before his death in fighting west of the Sudanese capital Khartoum. Ibrahim, a physician, was from the Koba branch of the Zaghawa ethnic group, located mainly in Sudan.