Atbara

Atbara is a city in northeastern Sudan's River Nile State, known as the Railway City for its central role in the national rail network, with a population of 134,586 recorded in the 2008 census. Located at the junction of the Nile and Atbarah rivers, it was the site of Lord Kitchener's 1898 victory over Mahdist forces that led directly to the decisive Battle of Omdurman later that year and ultimately to British control of Sudan. Atbara remains headquarters of the Sudanese National Railway Company, with most local employment tied to the rail lines, and it also hosts one of Sudan's largest cement factories and sits on the Cairo-Cape Town Highway; the country's first trade union formed there among railway workers in 1946.