Beautiful Afrique

Senussi campaign in Egypt and Sudan is successfully ended by the British on February 8, 1917.

The Senussi Campaign took place in north Africa, from November 1915 to February 1917 during the First World War. The combatants were the British Empire and the Senussi, a religious sect composed of tribesmen based in Libya, supported by the Ottoman Empire and the German Empire. (The British Empire forces included British, South African, Australia and New Zealand, and Indian Sikh troops.) The Ottoman Empire persuaded the head of the Senussi, the Grand Senussi Ahmed Sharif es Senussi, in the summer 1915, to order his tribesmen to attack British-occupied Egypt from the west, raise jihad, and encourage an insurrection in Egypt against the British. The Ottoman Empire had persuaded Sayyid Ahmed to attack, because they believed that would increase the chance that the Ottomans could capture the Suez Canal from the east. The Senussi crossed the Libyan-Egyptian border in November 1915.