Nyala, capital of South Darfur State

Highlights: Nyala, the capital of South Darfur State, in the Darfur region of western Sudan, was founded in the 19th century. It is about a thousand kilometers from the capital, Khartoum, and includes 4 administrative units, and the railway line ends in western Sudan. The city is located at a crossroads where roads from east to west and south to north of Sudan intersect, where the railway ends. Nyala has different populations of African and Arab tribes, with the Daju, Fur and Borno being indigenous to the city.

Nyala, the capital of South Darfur State, in the Darfur region of western Sudan, was founded in the 19th century, about a thousand kilometers from the capital, Khartoum, and includes 4 administrative units, and the railway line ends in western Sudan.

Nyala, the capital of South Darfur State, was founded in the 19th century, and is about a thousand kilometers away from the capital, Khartoum, and includes 4 administrative units, and the railway line ends in western Sudan.

Site

Nyala in South Darfur State in the Darfur region of western Sudan, at an altitude of 673 meters above sea level south of the Jebel Marra plateau.

The city is located at a crossroads where roads from east to west and south to north of Sudan intersect, where the railway ends.

In terms of terrain, it is characterized by rocky land covered by layers of clay and sandy soil, and several seasonal valleys descend from the Jebel Marra plateau, and head from north to south to flow into the Arabian Sea River.

From west to east, Nyala is divided by Wadi Burli (Wadi Nyala), one of the largest valleys in the Darfur region, where seasonal rainwater collects in the heights of Jebel Marra, while the climate of the city is tropical and humid and dry.

Nyala market during former President Omar al-Bashir's visit to Darfur (Reuters)

Population

Nyala has a population of about 3 million and 400 million people in 2023, and an area of about 126 thousand square kilometers, and it is one of the largest cities in the Darfur region, and the expansion of its geographical and demographic extensions since 1972 has led it to top the second place in terms of population density after the capital, Khartoum.

Nyala has different populations of African and Arab tribes, with the Daju, Fur and Borno being indigenous to the city.

After Nyala became the capital of South Darfur, it attracted a number of Darfuri communities, including Rizeigat, Misseriya, Banu Halba, Habaniya, Ta'ayish, Jalaba Hawara, Mahriya, um Jalloul, Fallata and Barqad, as well as merchants from northern and central Sudan.

The tribes inhabiting Nyala speak the language and local languages of Darfur's components.

Date

Nyala was founded in the century in 1850 as a village, and was taken as the headquarters of the presidency of South Maqdumia during the rule of Sultan Ali Dinar, the last sultan of the Fur in the Sultanate of Darfur in Sudan, and in 1898 he established granaries, an expanded water well, and in 1900 he established a British military garrison.

During the dual rule of Sudan, the British took Nyala as a center built in straw in 1917, according to an interview with Al Jazeera Salah al-Din Muhammad al-Fadl Rijal, head of the Supreme Council of Native Administration in the Darfur region.

The history of Nyala's transformation into a city dates back to 1921, when it was chosen during the dual rule as the administrative center of the West Baggara Rural Council (the center of the native administration of South Darfur, the presidency of Madumia).

A battle against English colonialism in 1921 led by Abdullah al-Suhaini and some South Darfur leaders and tribes led to the death of the regional governor of Nyala.

Nyala became the capital of the southern part of the region when Darfur was divided into states in 1994.

It witnessed the visit of a number of heads of state, such as the visit of King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia in 1965, the Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie, and in 1977 visited Nyala Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the first ruler of the UAE.

In 1980, the city rose up against the late President Gaafar Nimeiri in protest against the appointment of Major General Tayeb al-Mardi as governor from outside the Darfur region, according to the head of the Supreme Council of the Native Administration in the Darfur region.

Anti-government protesters in Nyala Market on April 24, 2019 (Reuters)

Economy

Darfur is Sudan's second most important region in terms of economic activity after Khartoum, and the capital of Darfur state took its luck from this activity, as its location at which the railway ends, western Sudan, made it a center for import and export.

Nyala Airport has strengthened its position as a gateway to trade relations, and the location of South Darfur State and its borders with Central and South Sudan have contributed to the recovery of border trade in Nyala with South Sudan, Central Africa and Chad.

It is located one of the largest livestock markets in the Darfur region in western Sudan, the Nyala Agricultural Stock Exchange, a market for spices and honey products, in addition to being one of the most important export centers for gum arabic and livestock.

One of its oldest markets, the Grand Market, is located in Nyala, which includes the most famous landmark "um Dafso Market" and comes from Chad and Libya, next to the spice market known as the "Chili Market", as well as ice factories and the largest meat slaughterhouse in the Darfur region.

It is famous for the production of peanuts, millet, cattle and goat herding and trade, as well as the cultivation of fruits and vegetables, while the economic activities of the city's residents are distributed between agriculture, herding and trade.

Landmarks

The city of Nyala is full of a number of historical and tourist sites, including:

Nyala Al , Bahair Theatre
Nyala Cinema
Mount Nyala
Gardens of Dumaya
Nyala Museum, which contains pottery pieces and tools showing the diversity of civilizations that arose in Darfur
Tijaniya Mosque, built in 1917
The archaeological Maqdomia dates back to 1930 and the building represents the house and Diwan of the Maqdoom, and is a historical archaeological landmark for the guests of South Darfur

Diala is famous for its peanuts, millet, fruits and vegetables and its inhabitants work in agriculture, herding and trade (Reuters)

Flags

From the flags and symbols of Nyala:

Abd al-Rahman Dabke, the head of the Bani Halba tribe, a member of parliament for the Baggara Nyala constituency in the west, and the sponsor of the Sudan's independence proposal from within the parliament.
Salah Ali al-Ghali was the Nazer of Habbaniya, deputy governor of Greater Darfur, the second governor of South Darfur, and the first governor of West Kordofan.
Ahmed Abdel Rahman Adam is one of the men of the civil administration and civil service leaders in Sudan.
Safia Ali Dinar, the first teacher appointed to South Darfur, and the first president of a women's union in the region.
Ali Al-Hajj is a doctor and politician who is one of the most prominent leaders of the Islamic Movement in Sudan, held a number of ministerial positions, and is one of the founders of the National Islamic Front after the 1985 uprising, he was elected in 2017 as Secretary-General of the Popular Congress Party, succeeding the late Dr. Hassan Al-Turabi.
Saleh Mahmoud Osman, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Vice-President of the Darfur Bar Association, member of the Democratic Lawyers Association, and human rights lawyer. He was awarded the 2007 Sakharov Prize.
Musaed Mohamed Ali is a lawyer and human rights defender who won the Ulf Palma Prize for Human Rights in 2006 jointly with former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.