Lado Enclave - History

History

Previously a part of the Ottoman-Egyptian province of Equatoria, Lado came under the control of the British, who, under the stipulations of the 1894 British-Congolese Treaty, leased the area to King Leopold II of the Belgians for the period of his lifetime. In exchange, Leopold agreed to cede a strip of land in eastern Congo when construction of the Cape to Cairo railway was to begin. The enclave had an area of about 15,000 square miles (39,000 km2), a population of about 250,000 and had its capital at the town of Lado.

A Congo Free State force under Louis Napoléon Chaltin reached the Nile at the town of Bedden in the enclave in February 1897. Chaltin defeated the Mahdists there in the battle of Rejaf. This consolidated Léopold's claim to the Upper Nile, but Chaltin did not have the forces to do more, although he had been instructed to continue on towards Khartoum.

The northernmost post was Kiro, on the west bank of the Nile a short distance above the British post at Mongalla. Edward Fothergill visited the Sudan around 1901, basing himself at Mongalla between Lado to the south and Kiro to the north, but on the east shore of the river. By his account "Kiro, the most northern station of the Congo on the Nile, is very pretty and clean. Lado, the second station, is prettier still". However, he said that although the buildings were well made, they were too closely crowded together.

The Lado Enclave was important to the Congo Free State as it included Rejaf, which was the terminus for boats on the Nile. Rejaf was the seat of the Commander, the only European colonial official within the enclave, who were in place from 1897 to June 1910.

On 10 June 1910, following Leopold’s death, the district became a province of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and in 1912 the southern half was ceded to Uganda, then a British colony.