# Kufra

Kufra (/ˈkuːfrə/) is a basin and oasis group in the Kufra District of southeastern Cyrenaica in Libya. At the end of the 19th century, Kufra became the centre and holy place of the Senussi order. It also played a minor role in the Western Desert Campaign of World War II.
It is located in a particularly isolated area, not only because it is in the middle of the Sahara Desert but also because it is surrounded on three sides by depressions which make it dominate the passage of the east-west land traffic across the desert. For the colonial Italians, it was also important as a station on the north-south air route to Italian East Africa. These factors, along with Kufra's dominance of the southeastern Cyrenaica region of Libya, highlight the strategic importance of the oasis and why it was a point of conflict during World War II.

## Etymology

The folk etymology associates the word "Kufra" with the Arabic term kafir, meaning non-Muslims (often translated as "infidels" or literally "those who conceal [the truth]"), referring to the Toubous native to the region. The oasis was named "Al-Kufra" (the infidels) as, when the Arab tribes invaded the Tebu oases in southeastern Cyrenaica, they raised the banner of fighting the infidels, thus giving the region its name. The area is home to several oases, rich in aquifers, palm trees, and historical Tebu palaces and fortresses, as well as ancient cemeteries. Most of the oases' names became Arabized, with each oasis named after an Arab tribe, as they were distributed as spoils following the invasion.
The alliance of the Jawazi Arab tribes, who primarily inhabit northeastern Libya and the northwestern border of Egypt, is regarded as the first to attempt invading the oases around the end of the 18th century. However, they were quickly defeated by the valiant Tebu (Goran) and Zaghawa, making the Jawazis to withdraw. Later, another alliance formed among various Arab tribes, in particularl, the Al-Zawiya tribe, which greatly benefited from the conquest of these rich oases, as well as the Al-Jawabis and the Majabira, after acquiring firearms. This alliance's invasion of the Tebu oases was supported by the Ottoman Turkish governor Yusuf Pasha Al-Kurmani, who led a military campaign from Tripoli in 1808 to invade the oases in southeastern Libya. The Tebu and Zaghawa, renowned for their resilience and valor, mounted a determined defense against the large-scale invasion carried out by Arab tribes allied with the Turks and armed with rifles. Despite facing repeated military campaigns, they resisted fiercely, standing firm and fighting valiantly to repel the invaders. However, after suffering significant losses, the invaders pressed on, eventually forcing them to abandon the region. As a consequence, the oases were seized by the invading Arab tribes, and the Maghabira settled in the oasis of Jalu.
Within the Al-Jawf Oasis lies a palace in the Qadrify area, a district that has historically been inhabited by the Toubous and continues to be so to this day. During the invasion of 1808, the Zuwayyas, in particular, destroyed much of the historical sites in the Al-Jawf Oasis, including an ancient palace, in an effort to erase the Toubous' heritage from the region. It is a well-documented fact that the Zuwayyas deliberately obscured the history of the Toubous, withholding information when the German explorer Gerhard Rohlfs sought to gather about the Toubous' past during his expeditions in 1865 and 1867 in Tazair (Kufra). Despite the destruction, the historical palace still stands in Qadrify, although it remains in a state of decay. Unfortunately, due to insufficient attention from archaeologists, the fortresses, castles, and palaces throughout the southern Libyan regions in general —such as those in Tazairbu, Qatarune, Tajiruhi, Jalu, Awjila, and other locations—are being neglected and destroyed.
With respect to the original name for the Kufra region is "Tazair" in Tabu which translates to "green land." In this context, "Ta" signifies "land" or "homeland," while "zair" means "green." Notably, the term "Ta" also appears in ancient Egyptian, where it similarly denotes "land." Many Toubou place names begin with "Ta" or "Tu," reflecting a linguistic connection between the Toubou language and ancient civilizations.
While "Febabu" is the original name for Al-Jawf (Kufra) Oasis although it is sometimes referred to in ancient texts as "Gheibabu," Febabu is the correct pronunciation, and it is the ancient and original name for the Al-Jawf Oasis. In the Toubou language, it means "the land of big pits." This name was mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History (circa 77–79 CE), referencing an earlier Roman military campaign led by the general Balbus in the 1st century BCE. Pliny recorded the names of various locations, including Febabu. Balbus’s expedition, which took place around 19 BCE, covered areas in the eastern, southeastern, and southwestern regions of the Libyan Desert. Pliny’s mention of Febabu serves as an early historical record of the Toubou presence in the region, alongside many other place names of Toubou origin.
However, today, the name "Tazair" continues to be used to refer to the Al-Jawf Oasis. According to Tebu oral history, passed down by the Tebu elders who recounted events surrounding the early French conquest around 1907-1908, it is said that in ancient times, a mighty river once flowed through the Ennedi region in northeastern Chad. This claim is supported by geological evidence that the Tazair region is known for its abundant underground water reserves, with aquifers that bring water to the surface, suggesting a rich supply of water in the area. Kufra did not fall under the dominion of the Arabs or the Ottomans until 1808. Prior to that, southeastern Libya was known as Tazir, with Tazirbu as its capital, and was governed by the Toubou Sultanate. Alongside the Darfur Sultanate, governed by the Tanjir (Gaeda) clan of the Toubou, they were part of the Kanem-Bornu Empire. Under the leadership of the Mai (King), this empire had significant influence over both the Saharan and Sahelian regions.

## Geography

Kufra is an elliptic shaped basin, oriented northeast-southwest. The major axis is 50 km (31 mi), the minor 20 km (12 mi) long. It is bordered by hills which are at most 100 m high. The soil consists of red marl or sand and in the lowest parts there are salt lakes or dried salines. In the basin lie the following oases:
* Al Jawf ("Center"), the largest, situated at the northeast end of the basin, 5 km (3.1 mi) long and 2–3 km (1.2–1.9 mi) wide. It is rich with palms and gardens.
* Buma and Buema, both small and situated to the east of Al Jawf. Gerhard Rohlfs set his camp north of Buema, and since then the locality is known as "Garet-en-Nasrani" ("Field of the Christian" in Arabic). Kufra Airport is located in Buma.
* Ez-Zurgh, situated 4 km (2.5 mi) to the south of Al Jawf. It consists of a line of Palm trees. Until the Italian occupation it was inhabited only by slaves.
* Et-Tleilíb and Et-Talláb, both situated to the southwest of Al Jawf. The latter is the farthest from Al Jawf, lying 20 km (12 mi) away.
On the north edge of the basin, there is the village of El Tag, which means crown in Arabic, which does not contain an oasis. It was founded by Sayyid Muhammad al-Mahdi as-Senussi, the son of the founder of the Senussi order, when he moved to Kufra and is considered the holy place of Senussi.

### Climate

Kufra has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification: BWh).
Climate data for Kufra, Libya (Altitude: 435 m or 1,427 ft) :
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 21.0 (69.8) | 23.0 (73.4) | 28.0 (82.4) | 33.0 (91.4) | 37.0 (98.6) | 39.0 (102.2) | 38.0 (100.4) | 38.0 (100.4) | 35.0 (95.0) | 32.0 (89.6) | 27.0 (80.6) | 22.0 (71.6) | 31.1 (88.0) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 13.0 (55.4) | 15.0 (59.0) | 19.5 (67.1) | 24.0 (75.2) | 28.5 (83.3) | 30.5 (86.9) | 30.5 (86.9) | 30.5 (86.9) | 27.5 (81.5) | 24.5 (76.1) | 19.0 (66.2) | 14.0 (57.2) | 23.0 (73.5) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 5.0 (41.0) | 7.0 (44.6) | 11.0 (51.8) | 15.0 (59.0) | 20.0 (68.0) | 22.0 (71.6) | 23.0 (73.4) | 23.0 (73.4) | 20.0 (68.0) | 17.0 (62.6) | 11.0 (51.8) | 6.0 (42.8) | 15.0 (59.0) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1 (0.0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1 (0.0) |
| Average rainy days | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 45 | 38 | 33 | 28 | 24 | 23 | 23 | 23 | 27 | 31 | 42 | 48 | 32 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 279 | 262 | 294 | 286 | 306 | 342 | 384 | 374 | 301 | 298 | 292 | 266 | 3,689 |
| Percentage possible sunshine | 84 | 83 | 80 | 76 | 75 | 85 | 93 | 94 | 85 | 84 | 90 | 82 | 84 |
| Source: Climatemps.com ||||||||||||||

## History
### Early history

Further research and verification are necessary to fully confirm the accuracy of the historical account attributed to Claudius Ptolemy. In his writings around 90 AD, Ptolemy mentions that Julius Maternus (or Matiernus) led a predominantly commercial expedition. Starting from the Gulf of Sirte, Maternus is said to have traveled to the Oasis of Cufra (Kufra) and the Oasis of Archei. After a four-month journey, in cooperation with the king of the Garamantes (The Tobou (also known as Gorane) believed to be the Garamantes), he is reported to have reached the rivers Bahr Salamat and Bahr Aouk, located near the modern-day Central African Republic, in a region referred to as Agisymba at the time.
This account is believed to be derived from Ptolemy’s writings, but further research and more citations are needed to verify the exact details. Some of these journeys were recorded through secondary sources or may have been influenced by the geographic interpretations of the time, or even constructed from limited or speculative information. It is important to note that ancient descriptions of African geography were often imprecise, and modern scholars have sometimes disputed or revised the historical locations described in these ancient accounts.
In 1154 al-Idrisi described a place identified by Lewicki as the oasis of Febabu (Kufra). Al Idrisi writes that the place was once flourishing and peopled, but was by that point in ruin, its wells dry, its herds returned to the wild. In the late 15th century, Leo Africanus reported an oasis in the land of the Berdoa, visited by a caravan coming from Awjila. It is possible that this oasis was identical with either the Al Jawf (Febabu) or the Tazirbu oasis, and on early modern maps, the Tazair (Al-Kufra) region was often labelled as Berdoa based on this report. Berdoa corresponded to the Toubou, a Nilo-Saharan speaking tribal people indigenous to the region and the name. The name Berdoa is derived from the city of Birdia (also pronounced Birdiya), located in northeastern Libya near the Egyptian border. Birdiya or Birdia is of Toubou origin and translates to "the one with the mark" or "the one with the distinctive mark." This naming provides insight into the Toubou's expansion along the coastlines, reflecting their presence and influence in the region.

### Early Western contact and the Senussi

The territory of Kufra was first explored by Westerners beginning with the 1873/74 expedition by German Gerhard Rohlfs. Rohlfs reportedly first reached the oasis from the north in 1879.
Kufra was an important trade and travelling route for various nomadic desert people. In 1895 seeking greater independence the Senussi relocated from Jaghbub, making the oasis their main centre. However, the Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II twice sent his aide-de-camp Azmzade Sadik El Mueyyed to meet Sheikh Senussi to cultivate positive relations and counter the West European scramble for Africa (see Azmzade 2021). After that, Westerners could no longer visit it until the First World War, when several soldiers of the Entente were held prisoner there.
In 1929, the Sanusi center of Kufra in the Sahara was pointed out as a center of the Trans-Saharan slave trade. In 1931, during the campaign of Cyrenaica, General Rodolfo Graziani easily conquered Kufra, considered a strategic region, leading about 3,000 soldiers from infantry and artillery, supported by about twenty bombers.
Many refugees fled the Italian conquest eastwards via Uweinat into Egypt. The British explorer Pat Clayton, engaged in mapping areas of previously unmapped desert, encountered the Kufra refugees when running triangulation from Wadi Halfa to Uweinat, and helped save many from death in the arid desert.

### Italian takeover of Kufra

The Frankfurter Zeitung reporter and author Muhammad Asad interviewed a man from Kufra after its seizure by the Italians in his book The Road to Mecca. According to Asad's source, the Italians attacked from three sides, with armored cars, artillery, and aircraft. The defenders, a few hundred men with only small arms unable to penetrate the Italian armor, defended the place house-to-house but were overwhelmed. The Italians (and their Eritrean auxiliaries) then raped the women, tore up a Koran and cast it on the ground, cut down the palm trees, burnt Sayyid Ahmad's library, and took some of the elders and scholars and hurled them to their death from airplanes.

### Italian rule and World War II

In the following years the Italians built an airfield (now Kufra Airport) in Buma oasis and a fort in El Tag, which dominated the area.
Buma airport was equipped with a radio-centre for flight assistance and was often used as a stop for routes toward Asmara and Italian East Africa. The fort was also used as a radio post to guide in Italian aircraft as well as to maintain communication with Italian East Africa.
Kufra grew in importance when the Second World War started and, after the Suez Canal was closed to Italian shipping, connections with Italian East Africa became mainly aerial, using Kufra and its strategic location.
Kufra, due to its key role for the Italian Royal Army, soon became a target for the Allies, with Free France and British desert troops beginning a long battle for its conquest. On 31 January 1941 Pat Clayton, an explorer recruited by British Intelligence, was captured by the Italian Auto-Saharan Company near Jebel Sherif, when leading "T" Patrol in reconnaissance of the planned attack on Kufra.
The Free French from Chad, with General Leclerc leading a combined force of Free French and Chadian native troops, attacked and took Kufra in the Battle of Kufra.
In later stages of the Western Desert Campaign, Kufra was used as a staging post for Allied units such as the Long Range Desert Group and the Special Air Service.
In May 1942 it was a location of the Tragedy at Kufra, where three South African Air Force Bristol Blenheim aircraft became lost and after landing safely the crews subsequently died due to lack of water.

### After the war

After the Axis were expelled from North Africa, and when after the war it became part of independent Libya, the Buma airfield at Kufra was used little and fell into disrepair. The town surrounding the oasis is still dominated by the old fort of El Tag, built by the Italians in the mid-1930s.
On 26 August 2008, a hijacked Sudanese Boeing 737 landed at Kufra Airport after having departed from Nyala Airport, Darfur, for Khartoum. Earlier, Egyptian authorities had refused to allow the plane to land in their national capital, Cairo.
In recent decades, Kufra has become a major point on the route of African migrants who try to reach Europe by various routes, and some of whom get incarcerated in Kufra's notorious prison.
During the 2011 Libyan Civil War, the area was reported to be under control of anti-Gaddafi forces and not the government of Muammar Gaddafi on 2 April 2011. On 28 April 2011, loyalist forces reportedly re-captured Kufra. There were no reports of casualties in the fighting for the town after the rebels put up only light resistance. By 6 May 2011 the town had been retaken by the Libyan rebels. In February 2012, fighting between the Tobu and Zuwayya tribes killed over a hundred people and the town became a focal point for mass human rights violations of refugees and migrants.

## Tourism

Kufra is situated in the middle of the Sahara for its pristine desert beauty, so that tours to the oasis are organized by local tour operators.

## Kufra in migrants' routes and human trafficking

Migrants coming from the East African coast and the Near East pass through and compulsorily stop in Kufra. It is a little village of transit along the traditional route between Khartoum and the coastal Libyan towns, which has lately turned to be a spot gathering Libyan-Sudanese criminal organizations involved in the illegal transport of immigrants, police officers controlling the boundaries and the need of people working in local productive activities.
The village of Kufra has long been suspected and accused by European Parliamentary delegations as being criminally instrumental in assisting migrants. In 2007, they defined Kufra as "a free zone, a sort of starting Centre of Temporary Permanence CPT against the law... These gathering centres are places, in which the first contacts with the criminal organizations occur. Such organizations promote the "journey of hope", with a flexible handling of the Migrants' African routes according to the restriction policies adopted by the various governments. The minds of the criminal organizations act accordingly to what happens in each country: if Morocco stresses its restrain policies, the routes move towards the Canary Islands, if the controls in Libya increase, the streams are diverted towards Malta. When the migratory stream is over, the routes are back on Libya and Tunisia."
The 1,500-kilometre-long (930 mi) route towards the coastal Libyan towns is done at night on covered trucks. Such journey conditions are described as "hellish". People are often stopped by the police and therefore the route is covered many times in both directions. Once the migrants arrive, or are brought back, in Kufra, the only way to escape this situation is to pay people traders, which are often colluded with the police officers. People brought back to the Sudanese border may reverse the course just with cash money. Hence the occurrence of continuous exploitation, enlistment in the work and prostitution black market, painful waiting for a money order urged by relatives and friends through mobile phone communications, which are allowed only for this aim.
In 2005 Italy allocated funds for the creation of a detention camp at Kufra.

### Inhuman conditions of detention

Kufra jail is defined by Ethiopian and Eritrean migrants, who stayed there, as:
   ...a place of death. When you hear the sound of the keys in the cell lock your blood freezes. You have to turn towards the wall. If you look them in the eyes, they beat you repeatedly. (Daniel, 22 years old, from Eritrea)
   We were about 700 people, about 100 Ethiopians, 200 Eritreans and 400 from Chad and Sudan. We slept on the floor, one on the other, there wasn't even a place to lay down. For lunch: a fist of white rice for the all day, less than 570 grams each. There were also some baguettes, but you needed money to get them... (an ex-colonel of the Eritrean army, political refugee in Italy)
   When I saw Kufra I wanted to hitch up. They took my mobile phone and all the money I had in my pocket and put me in to a cell with other 20 people. There is no need in telling you about the dirt, hunger and continuous humiliations. There were also cells for women and children. They were kept separated from us. Women won't ever tell the truth because of shame, but it's useful to make everybody aware of what happened to women in Kufra. They were raped in front of their husbands, their brothers. They used pieces of iron, sticks... It's shameful. They treated us like beasts. (Yakob, another boy from Eritrea)

## Agricultural project

At the beginning of the 1970s, Libya launched a great cultivation project in Kufra aimed at developing agriculture in the desert. LEPA irrigation is provided by fossil water beneath the ground surface, the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System, a non-renewable source and the only accessible water resource in the area. Rotors (high sprinkler that rotates) provide irrigation and the obtained circles have a diameter of about 1 km and can be observed from space.
This is one of Libya's largest agricultural projects. Because only about two percent of Libya's land receives enough rainfall to be cultivated, this project uses the underground aquifer. The green circles in the desert frequently indicate tracts of agriculture supported by center-pivot irrigation. The agricultural project is an easy-to-recognize landmark for orbiting astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The Libyan government also has a project called the Great Manmade River to pump and transport these groundwater reserves to the coast to support Libya's growing population and industrial development. As of December 2011, the excessive exploitation of the aquifer has provoked the complete drying up of the lake in the oasis.