Gezira (), also spelt Al Jazirah, Al Jazeera and Al Jazira, is one of the 18
states of Sudan
Below is a list of the 18 states of the Sudan (Arabic names are in parentheses). Prior to 9 July 2011, the Republic of the Sudan was composed of 25 states. The ten southern states now form part of the independent country of South Sudan. Two addi ...
. The state lies between the
Blue Nile and the
White Nile
The White Nile ( ar, النيل الأبيض ') is a river in Africa, one of the two main tributaries of the Nile, the other being the Blue Nile. The name comes from the clay sediment carried in the water that changes the water to a pale color. ...
in the east-central region of the country. The state has a population of 5,096,920 as of 2018, and an area of 27,549 km
2.
The state's capital is
Wad Madani. Gezira is known as an irrigated cotton-producing state as it is a well-populated area that is suitable for agriculture. The state's name comes from the
Arabic word for island.
History
The area was at the southern end of
Nubia and little is known about its ancient history and only limited archaeological work has been conducted in this area. It was part of the kingdom of
Alodia for several centuries, and with that state's collapse in the early sixteenth century, it became the centre of the
Funj Sultanate.
Katfia in Gezira was the place where the
Wad Habuba Revolt took place in April 1908. The
Gezira Scheme was a program launched in 1925 to foster
cotton farming. At that time the
Sennar Dam
The Sennar Dam is an irrigation dam on the Blue Nile near the town of Sennar in the Al Jazirah region of Sudan. The dam is long and has a maximum height of . It was designed by the Scottish engineer Sir Murdoch MacDonald, begun in 1914 and com ...
and numerous
irrigation canals were built. Al Jazirah became the
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
's major agricultural region with more than under cultivation.
The administrative state of Gezira was established on 1 July 1943, after the
Blue Nile state was divided into three. The initial development project was semi-private, but the government nationalized it in 1950. Cotton production increased in the 1970s but by the 1990s increased wheat production has supplanted a third of the land formerly seeded with cotton.
The ongoing
War in Sudan that begun in 2023 has caused a refugee crisis in the state, with an estimated 250,000 fleeing due to clashes on December 15, 2023 by December 18 of the same year.
Districts and populated places
The capital of Gezira is
Wad Madani.
The state is divided into seven
districts
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...
, namely:
*
Al Kamlin
*
East al Gazera
*
North al Gazera
*
Al Managil
*
South al Gazera
*
Um al Gura
*
Wad Madani
Populated places include:
*
Abushneib
*
Buwaidhaa
*
El Manaqil
El Manaqil ( ar, المناقل), or Al Managil is a city in Al Jazirah state in the Sudan. Its population as of the controversial 2008 census was 99,775. Some estimates say the population is about 143,000; World Gazetteer estimated it in 2012 at ...
*
Rufaa
*
Tanub
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Al Jazirah (State)
States of Sudan