Osman Digna (Arabic: عثمان دقنة) (c. 1840–1926) was a follower of Muhammad Ahmad, the self-proclaimed Mahdi, in Sudan, who became his best known military commander during the Mahdist War.

[4] At the First Battle of El Teb he inflicted a severe defeat on a much larger Egyptian force led by Baker Pasha near Tokar, on 4 February 1884.

Immediately after this victory, however, a new British-Egyptian force was sent to retrieve the situation, and he was defeated by General Graham near Tokar at the Second Battle of El Teb.

Both sides withdrew to restore their forces, but Graham soon launched a second attack designed to crush Osman Digna completely.

At the Battle of Tamai, the Mahdist forces exploited a gap in the British position, and succeeded in breaking an infantry square.

[6] Nevertheless, the British campaign had achieved very little, as Osman Digna "retained both Sinkat and Tokar and the Suakin-Berber route was controlled by the Ansar [Mahdists]".

[7] Osman Digna later served under the Mahdi's successor Abdallahi ibn Muhammad (known as the Khalifa), who launched a series of military operations in subsequent years.

Osman Digna took command of a Mahdist force invading Ethiopia in 1885, but was defeated by Ethiopian general Ras Alula at the Battle of Kufit on 23 September.

After this, he remained a leader in the Mahdist army, but was only marginally involved in the conflicts that led to the final defeat and death of the Khalifa.

When the British under Herbert Kitchener moved into the Sudan in 1898, the Khalifa sent a force under Emir Mahmud Ahmad to join with Osman's army.