Britain decided to reconquer the Sudan, which was controlled by the Mahdists under the khalifa Abdullah (1846?-99) and which was of increasing colonial interest to the Italians and French in Africa. An Anglo-Egyptian army led by General Horatio Herbert Kitchener (1850-1916) advanced south from Egypt up the Nile River into the Sudan. Accompanied by a river gunboat flotilla, Kitchener constructed a railway as he moved and encountered stiff resistance from the Mahdists. The Anglo-Egyptian force captured Dongola (September 21, 1896) and Abu Hamed (August 7, 1897) and was victorious against the Mahdists at the Battle of the Atbara River (April 8, 1898). A 40,000-man army of dervishes and Mahdists, under the command of the khalifa, savagely attacked Kitchener's army of about 26,000 men at Omdurman on the Nile, just north of Khartoum, on September 2, 1898. The attack was repelled with machine guns, and the khalifa suffered heavy casualties. Kitchener counterattacked, and his cavalry - the 21st Lancers, among who was Winston Churchill (1874-1965) - bravely drove the dervishes from the field. The khalifa and his remaining forces took flight and were pursued into Kordofan, where they managed to hold their ground for more than a year. On November 24, 1899, the Mahdist forces were completely destroyed, and the khalifa was slain in battle. The condominium government of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was then established.
1899
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