Battle of Umm Diwaykarat

Overview

The Battle of Umm Diwaykarat on 25 November 1899 marked the final defeat of the Mahdist State in Sudan, when Anglo-Egyptian forces under the command of Lord Kitchener defeated what was left of the Mahdist armies under the command of the Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, known as the Khalifa, after the equally disastrous Battle of Omdurman a year earlier.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle of Umm Diwaykarat on 25 November 1899 marked the final defeat of the Mahdist State in Sudan. Anglo-Egyptian forces under Reginald Wingate engaged the remaining Mahdist armies under Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, the Khalifa, inflicting roughly 1,000 casualties on a force of approximately 10,000. The Mahdist State had already suffered catastrophically at the Battle of Omdurman the previous year, and Umm Diwaykarat extinguished what remained of organized resistance. With the Khalifa's defeat, British and Egyptian authority over Sudan was effectively consolidated, ending nearly two decades of Mahdist rule that had begun with the uprising of 1881. The battle closed the Mahdist War and established the conditions for Anglo-Egyptian condominium governance of Sudan in the years that followed.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (2)