Anglo-Egyptian Darfur Expedition

Anglo-Egyptian Darfur Expedition
Part of World War I
Darfur as a province of the Sudan in 1912
Date 16 March – 6 November 1916 Location Darfur, now part of Sudan Coordinates: 13°00′N 25°00′E / 13.000°N 25.000°E / 13.000; 25.000 Result Anglo-Egyptian victory Darfur becomes a province of Sudan
Belligerents
British Empire Sultanate of Egypt	Sultanate of Darfur
Commanders and leaders
Reginald Wingate Philip Kelly	Ali Dinar † Ramadan Ali
Units involved
Elements of Mounted Infantry Camel Corps 13th Sudanese Infantry 14th Sudanese Infantry 14th Egyptian Infantry Arab Battalion	Fur Army
Strength
2,000 all ranks	4,000–6,000 riflemen unknown number of auxiliaries armed with spears
Casualties and losses
5 dead 23 wounded	c. 231 dead c. 1,096 wounded.

The Anglo-Egyptian Darfur Expedition of 1916 was a military operation by British Empire and the Sultanate of Egypt, launched as a preemptive invasion of the Sultanate of Darfur.

The sultan of Darfur Ali Dinar had been reïnstated by the British after their victory in the Mahdist War but during the First World War he grew restive, refusing his customary tribute to the Sudanese government and showing partiality to the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

Sirdar Reginald Wingate then organized a force of around 2,000 men; under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Philip James Vandeleur Kelly, the force entered Darfur in March 1916 and decisively defeated the Fur Army at Beringia and occupied the capital El Fasher in May. Ali Dinar had already fled to the mountains and his attempts to negotiate a surrender were eventually broken off by the British. His location becoming known, a small force was sent after him and the sultan was killed in action in November 1916. Subsequently, Darfur was fully annexed to the British administration of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and remained part of Sudan upon its independence.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Darfur, which means "land of the Fur", was an independent country, located to the west of Sudan and east of what was then French Equatorial Africa. It is equal in size to France and can be divided into three regions: a semi arid region in the north, with very little rain, joining the Sahara desert; a central region divided in two by the Jebal Marra volcano, which rises 10,000 feet (3,000 m) above sea level that is surrounded by sand and rock plains to the east and west; and a southern region which has a rich alluvial type soil and a heavy annual rainfall.

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