On 2 September 1898 the decisive British victory at the Battle of Omdurmanin effectively brought the 15 year Mahdist rebellion (started by Muhammad Ahmed Ibn Seyyid abdullah, The Mahdi) to an end. Major General Sir Herbert Kitchener defeated the Mahdist forces under the command of Abdullah el-Taaishi. The British forces, totaling 26,000 men (two British brigades, four Egyptian brigades, plus artillery, mounted troops and a flotilla on the Blue Nile), camped at Wad Hamad on 24 August. Kitchener brought his troops along the Nile, with his flotilla bombarding Mahdist forts and the walls of Omdurman, to Egeiga, four miles north of Omdurman on the west bank. Facing Kitchener were 40,000 Ansar (or Dervish, or to the British, 'Fuzzy-Wuzzy') warriors.
The Mahdist army was decimated: 10,000 killed, 10,000 wounded, and another 5,000 taken prisoner. The British now dominated the Sudan.
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