Reginald Wingate (1861-1953), Governor-General of the Sudan 1899-1916. His first cousin once removed, Orde Wingate, is famous for his role in the Ethiopia and Burma campaigns in the next war.

March 1 1916, El Fasher–Turkey had been attempting to cause trouble with Britain’s Muslim subjects since their entry into the war. Apart from the continuing Senussi efforts in Libya and Egypt, this had largely met with little success. On February 3, 1915, Enver Pasha sent a letter to Ali Dinar, the Sultan of Darfur in western Sudan, encouraging him to rise up against British rule. The letter took a year to reach him, but on March 1, 1916, he decided to take up the fight against the British after reading Enver’s letter and meeting with a representative of the Senussi.

Ali Dinar had his own reasons for dissatisfaction with the status quo. The British preferred to leave Darfur as a buffer region between their interests in the Sudan and French interests in Chad, in hopes of avoiding another Fashoda. The French, however, wanted a clear border, which threatened Ali Dinar’s territory; Ali Dinar had grown increasingly annoyed that the British failed to protect him from the French.

Ali Dinar began attacks on the British-aligned tribes in Kordofan, to the east, soon after. He may have picked the wrong time to do so; French forces in Central Africa had just been freed up by the end of the campaign in Cameroon, and the Governor of Sudan, Reginald Wingate, was eager to resolve the Darfur situation by force.

Today in 1915: Britain Declares Complete Blockade on Germany

Sources include: Hew Strachan, The First World War (Volume I); Randal Gray, Chronicle of the First World War