Aba Island
| Aba Island | ||
|---|---|---|
| Waters | White Nile | |
| Geographical location | 13 ° 20 ′ N , 32 ° 37 ′ E | |
|
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| length | 37.4 km | |
| width | 5 km | |
| main place | Ar Raḩmānīyah | |
The Aba Island ( Arabic جزيرة_آبا, DMG Jazīrat Ābā ,) is an inland island in the White Nile south of Khartoum , Sudan . It is the original home of the Mahdi in Sudan and the spiritual base of the Umma Party . The island belongs to the state of An-Nil al-abyad , district of al-Jabalian .
history
The island was the site of the first battle of the Mahdi Uprising , the Battle of Aba , on August 12, 1881.
In the early 1920s, between 5,000 and 15,000 pilgrims came to the island annually to celebrate Ramadan . Many of them compared the then Mahdi Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi (1885–1959) with the prophet Jesus and believed that he would drive the Christian colonists out of Sudan.
The British colonial rulers found that Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi had ties to agents and leaders in the former colonies of Nigeria and Cameroon , and that the Mahdists had predicted an eventual victory over the Christians. They accused him of instigating unrest in these colonies. After pilgrims from West Africa held mass demonstrations on the island in 1924, Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi was asked to stop the pilgrimages.
Air Raid (1970)
After the Ansar protested against the newly established Sudanese government of Jafar an-Numairi in 1970 , the latter attacked the island with the help of Egyptian fighter bombers. The attack was allegedly led by the then young air force chief and later Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak . About 12,000 Ansar were killed in the attack, including Sadiq al-Mahdi's uncle, and the Mahdi family's extensive property was confiscated by the state.
Individual evidence
- ^ Richard Cockett: Sudan: Darfur and the Failure of an African State. New Haven Press, London 2010, p. 63.