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 ad ...

. The state lies between the

Blue Nile The Blue Nile is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. It travels for approximately through Ethiopia and Sudan. Along with the White Nile, it is one of the two major Tributary, tributaries of the Nile and supplies about 85.6% of the wa ...

and the

White Nile The White Nile ( ') is a river in Africa, the minor of the two main tributaries of the Nile, the larger being the Blue Nile. The name "White" comes from the clay sediment carried in the water that changes the water to a pale color. In the stri ...

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 km². The state's capital is

Wad Madani Wad Madani (; also spelled Wad Medani and known simply as Madani) is a city in eastern Sudan and the capital of the Al Jazirah (state), Al Jazirah state. "Wad Madani" (population), Microsoft Encarta, Online Encyclopedia 2001. Wad Madani lies on th ...

. 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 Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

word for island.

History

The region was once occupied by the Meroitic Kingdom. An indigenous Meroitic speaking community lived in the Gezira.The area was at the southern end of

Nubia Nubia (, Nobiin language, Nobiin: , ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue and White Nile, White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), and the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract ...

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 Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

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 (state), 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, be ...

and numerous

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

s were built. Al Jazirah became the

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

's major agricultural region with more than under cultivation. The administrative state of Gezira was established on 1 July 1943, after the

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 the state due to an offensive waged by the RSF on December 15, 2023 by December 18 of the same year. The RSF took control of most of the state, including Wad Madani until January 2025, when the Sudanese army recaptured the state leaving RSF in control of very little areas in the northwest part of the state. In October 2024, the state was affected by the widespread massacres.

Districts and populated places

The capital of Gezira is

. 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 ...

, namely: * Al Kamlin * East al Gazera * North al Gazera * Al Managil * South al Gazera * Um al Gura *

Populated places include: * Abushneib * Al-Hasahisa * Al Hilaliya *

Buwaidhaa Al-Buwaidhaa () town is a small town in the middle part of the Sudan. It is located east of the Blue Nile in The Gazera area about 135 km South of Khartoum. The old name was "Bit-Hadeed". Originally it was situated at the Eastern bank of the Blue ...

* El Manaqil * Rufaa * Tanub * Wad Al-Noora Other villages include: * Al-Sireha * Deim Elias * Maknun * Tambul * Safita al-Ghunomab * Saqiaah * Zurqa * Wad Rawah * Hajj Abd Allah

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Al Jazirah (State) States of Sudan