Atbara (sometimes Atbarah) (Arabic: عطبرة ʿAṭbarah) is a city located in River Nile State in northeastern Sudan.

[3] In the Battle of Atbara, fought on 8 April 1898 near Nakheila, on the north bank of the river, Lord Kitchener's Anglo-Egyptian army defeated the Mahdist forces, commanded by Amir Mahmud Ahmad.

Kitchener's strengthened position led to a decisive victory at the Battle of Omdurman on 2 September 1898,[4] giving the British control over the Sudan.

The original station and unusual dome-shaped houses of railway workers remain.

Jaafar Nimeiri, Sudan's president from 1969 to 1985, alternated between communism, capitalism, and Islamic fundamentalism – depending on who he was trying to get on his side and extract money from – and the communist phase had its stronghold around Atbara.

The trans-African automobile route — the Cairo-Cape Town Highway passes through Atbara.

A well-known resident was Mandour Elmahdi, who wrote A Short History of the Sudan.