al-Ubayyid
Federal State
Al- Ubayyid, Arabic الأبيض al - Ubayyid, alternative spelling El Obeid, El- Obeid rare, El Obied; is the capital of the Sudanese state Schamal Kordofan and an important trading center especially for arabic gum.
Location
The city is located in the middle of Sudan, approximately 370 km southwest of Khartoum and the north of the Nuba Mountains.
Population
Al- Ubayyid has 418 280 inhabitants according to the calculation of 2013.
Population development:
History
Al- Ubayyid belonged since 1821 to the realm of Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt, and grew up in the episode 's second largest city of Sudan. In January 1883 it was captured after a four- month siege of the Mahdists, where severe damage was done. Then sent the Egyptian Khedive an expeditionary force to retake the city and destroy the Mahdiya ( movement of the Mahdi ). The company ended in disaster. Consisting of some 10,000 man force that was exhausted and demoralized by the long march was defeated by the army of the Mahdi at the Battle of al - Ubayyid. Only after the defeat of the Madhi Empire, the city was rebuilt in 1898.
In February 2000, a helicopter crashed during a stopover in the city, among whose passengers Leni Riefenstahl was. This was on another reconnaissance trip to the Nuba in the Nuba Mountains and survived the crash with some broken ribs.
Economy
Al- Ubayyid is the main trading center for agricultural products and exported to the world market primarily gum arabic, sesame and peanuts next to it.
Infrastructure
A good paved road connects the town with Khartoum and ends about 100 kilometers to the west, where there are frequent only dirt roads to Darfur, as well as in the southern Nuba mountains.
On 27 February 1912, the railway from Khartoum was opened after al - Ubayyid. Since the outbreak of the Darfur conflict, the rail link from Khartoum to Nyala on Kusti and thus the branch of this route to Al- Ubayyid is almost set. The airport al - Ubayyid is 4 kilometers outside the center.
Education
In the city is the University of Kordofan, to the Institute of International Forestry and Forest Products TU Dresden has a partnership relationship.
Attractions
In the town there is a small museum about the history of the city, two stores and a large, Catholic Cathedral, completed in 1971.
Others
The city is the seat of a Catholic diocese since 1974.