[1] During the Second Sudanese Civil War thousands of Dinka women and children were abducted and subsequently enslaved by members of the Messiria and Rizeigat tribes.

[2] In the Darfur conflict the Abbala Rizeigat were instrumental to the Sudanese government's counterinsurgency campaign and gained notoriety as part of the Janjaweed militia.

They possess no Dar (tribal homeland) in Darfur unlike their Southern cousins,[6] only Damra - temporary settlements allocated to Arab nomads within land under the jurisdiction of other tribes.

These range from population growth and increases in farming (including associated economic and commercial agriculture) to climate change and restrictive legislation.

The sultans had never been able to bring the Baggara tribes under their control, the Rizeigat particularly were experts at guerrilla warfare suited to their homeland and used space and time to draw the Fur forces into a series of disasters.

After a leadership dispute that led to the removal of Madibbo Ali as chief of the tribe, he went East and joined up with the Mahdi who then sent him back to Darfur to raise a rebellion in Southern Darfur against the Turco-Egyptian administration which he did successfully as he won several victories against government forces and gained support from the Berti, Habbaniya and Beni Halba tribes.

In 1882, the governor of Darfur, Slatin Pasha assembled a force made up of 2,000 regular troops along with a support of 7,00 irregulars from among sections of the Birgid, Zaghawa, Messiria, Beigo, and others hostile to the local elites who aligned themselves to the Mahdist movement such as Madibbu Ali.