It lies on the west shore of the Blue Nile near Barakat, to the south of Wad Madani.
[2] After the Battle of Karari (2 September 1898) in which the Mahdist forces of the Khalifa were defeated by an Anglo-Egyptian army under General Herbert Kitchener, the Mahdi's family were forced to return to their original homes on Aba Island on the White Nile in September 1898.
After hearing a rumor that the group was conducting Mahdist propaganda, a force of government troops fired on the group at random, killing Khalifa Muhammad Sharif and two of the Mahdi's sons, al-Fadil and al-Bushra.
It said "Khalifa Sherif preached Mahdism openly at Wad Madani; but he was captured by Captain N.M. Smyth, V.C., and tried by court-martial and shot".
A footnote says he lived at Shakaba, forty miles from Sennar, and that the Mahdi's sons Fadil and Bishra were with him, but does not mention their death.