Abdallahi ibn Muhammad
The Sudanese, on the other hand had not renounced their ambition of spreading the Mahdist faith to Egypt. In 1889, the Khalifa Abdallahi ibn Muhammad sent the Emir Wad-el-Nujumi and an army 6,000 strong into Egypt for this purpose. The Mahdists avoided Wadi Halfa where most of the Egyptian troops were garrisoned, and camped at Toski by the Nile, 76 km north of the Egypt–Sudan border. Here they were attacked by the Egyptian Army, who nearly annihilated the Sudanese after a five-hour fight. The Emir was killed trying to rally his men and only 800 Mahdist warriors escaped. Apart from the officers commanding the Egyptian units, the only British troops participating were a squadron of the 20th Hussars.