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El Obeid
The capital of North Kordufan is a major crop mar-
keting centre and offers cash crops like gum Arabic,
sesame, peanuts… it is mainly populated by farmers
practicing rain-fed agriculture and livestock farming.
It is connected to Khartoum by a pretty decent mo-
torway, a railway line, and regular flights.
WHAT TO SEE AND DO
NORTHERN REGION
Atbara
The city is located 530 km North of Khartoum at the
junction of the Nile and Atbara River. It lies on the east-
ern bank of the Nile north of Ed Damer, to which it is
connected by a narrow old bridge across Atbara River.
Atbara is a hub for the railway and an important rail-
road manufacturing centre. A large part of the popula-
tion there lives from the railway activity. In 1898, the
city witnessed a battle between Lord Kitchener and the
Mahdists which led later on to the victory of the Brit-
ish in Omdurman. Atbara is also known as a fief for
El Mahdi House
communism, maybe because it is the home of the first
union in Sudan, from the railway workers.
Dongola
Dongola is a city of historic and commercial sig-
nificance located half way between Khartoum and
the borderline with Egypt. This is the capital of the
Northern State and the main producer of palm dates,
wheat cereals and fruits. The region boasts a num-
ber of archeological sites pertaining to Nubian and
Islamic eras. Historically, Old Dongola was the capi-
tal of a Christian kingdom. It is connected to Khar-
toum by an asphalt motorway and by rough land
roads to other main towns of the State and Northern
Kordofan.
In order to relieve Gordon, the British Nile expedition
of 1884-1885 had to pass through the city and the
regiments ended up racing on the Nile, which gave
the name of the English competition “dongola rac-
ing”.
Karima
This small market town, 400km from Khartoum, on
the eastern bank of the Nile is near the ancient capi-