Aba Island is an island on the White Nile to the south of Khartoum, Sudan. It is the original home of the Mahdi in Sudan and the spiritual base of the Umma Party. Responding to a 1970 Ansar protest against his newly established government in Khartoum, Gaafar Nimeiry attacked the island with the help of Egyptian fighter-bombers, allegedly directed by Hosni Mubarak who was then a young air force chief. About 12,000 Ansar were killed in the assault including the uncle of Sadiq al-Mahdi and the extensive holdings and property of the Mahdi family were sequestered by the state.
Famous quotes containing the word island:
“When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)