Ad Da'ein

History

The city was founded by Barsham (Haskanet) bin Abd al-Hamid, and the Rizeigat tribe to which Madibbo bin Ali bin Barsham belonged, settled in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries AD. The city's history witnessed clashes between it and the rulers and tribes of the neighboring regions, such as the Fur tribe in western Sudan and the Dinka in southern Sudan. The Rizeigat were subservient to the Sultan of Darfur and, on behalf of the Sultan of Fur, fought Zubair Pasha who defeated them twice on his way to conquer Darfur and annex it to the Ottoman Sultanate and their Viceroy in Egypt. The Rizeigat joined the Mahdist Revolution in Sudan and pledged allegiance to the Mahdi in Mount Qadeer in 1882 AD and their leader, Madibbo, participated in the Shalali battle that the Mahdi led against the soldiers of Turkish-Egyptian rule in the region. On 27 and 28 March 1987, the city witnessed an ethnic massacre, when armed Rizeigat killed over 1,000 Dinka people. On 22 November 2023, the city was captured and is currently occupied by the Rapid Support Forces during the ongoing Sudanese civil war. On 20 March 2026, 70 were killed and 146+ were injured in an attack on el-Daein Teaching Hospital, as reported by the World Health Organization. The Sudanese army denied responsibility.

Most-observed species

• Watson's Burrowing Asp

  Atractaspis watsoni Boulenger, 1908 · Squamata
  1
• Müller’s sand boa

  Eryx muelleri (Boulenger, 1892) · Squamata
  1