As Kitchener's army neared Khartoum, the Khalifa's general Mahmud entrenched a large force in a thorn-fenced zariba on the Atbara river. Kitchener's infantry stormed the position after an artillery bombardment, breaking the Mahdist army and capturing Mahmud himself.
Atbara destroyed the Khalifa's advanced army and cleared the last obstacle before Omdurman. It confirmed the crushing superiority of Kitchener's disciplined, well-armed force and set the stage for the war's climactic battle.
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Britain and France signed the Entente Cordiale, resolving colonial disputes in Africa and Asia and establishing a framework for military cooperation. The agreement ended centuries of Anglo-French rivalry.
The Entente Cordiale was the diplomatic foundation of the Allied coalition in WWI and committed Britain to defend France — drawing it into the war in 1914.
Outcome
Anglo-French alliance formed; shapes WWI coalition
The day after the presidential assassination, the RPF — encamped in northern Rwanda under a cease-fire agreement — resumed its military campaign. Under Paul Kagame's command, RPF forces advanced south from the Ugandan border, fighting the Rwandan government army (FAR) while the genocide proceeded around them. The RPF simultaneously fought a conventional war and attempted to rescue Tutsi survivors, often arriving too late. The offensive was the only force that ultimately stopped the killing.
The RPF offensive created a moral and strategic paradox: the only actor stopping the genocide was the armed force that Western powers pressured to accept ceasefires — ceasefires that would have allowed the genocide to continue. Kagame's decision to press the offensive over international objections was the decisive factor in ending the genocide. The campaign also generated a Hutu refugee crisis that seeded two Congo wars.
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