Kitchener, realizing the insufficient number of his troops for an attack, and running short of water, abandoned the zeriba and fell back upon the river.
The Khalifa followed him as far as the deserted zeriba, but, fortunately for the small Egyptian force, did not pursue further. The expedition was then abandoned, and Colonel Kitchener returned to Cairo.[179]
In the subsequent month of June the Khalifa was still in the neighbourhood of Lake Sherkeleh, and raiding the tribes in that vicinity. According to later reports he had been attacked by the Tagalla tribe and had sustained heavy losses, by which, and by other causes, his adherents were reduced to as few as 4,000 men.
On this intelligence reaching Cairo it was determined that another attempt should be made against him as soon as the rainy season, then impending, should be over.
In September, news arrived that the still uncaptured Abdullah, with an army increased to 10,000 men, had established himself near Jeb el Gheddeer, a mountainous spot 100 miles north-west of Fashoda. A powerful Emir named Arabi Dafalla, with a numerous following, was reported to be on his way to Darfur, with a view to joining hands with the Khalifa. The military authorities then decided that the moment had come for finally crushing the Khalifa.
On the 26th September, the Sirdar reached Cairo from Europe, and proceeded at once to Omdurman, where the arrangements for a further expedition were being rapidly pushed forward. The greatest care was taken to ensure secrecy, but it became known that the force, which was to be under the personal command of the Sirdar, would consist of about 6,000 men, including four battalions of Egyptian Infantry, with Cavalry, Camel Corps and Artillery, besides irregulars.
The troops were to concentrate at Kaka, on the White Nile, whence they were to march upon Jeb el Gheddeer, 90 miles distant from the river, at which place it was hoped the fight would come off. The expedition, which was to proceed partly by land and partly by river, was so far advanced that by the end of September the Cavalry, Camel Corps, and Artillery had already been sent off from Omdurman, and they were joined soon after by the Infantry, and on the 11th October the Sirdar and his staff followed in the steamer Dal.
If the War Department was reticent with reference to Colonel Kitchener's expedition, it was even more so with regard to that of the Sirdar. Of the doings of the latter nothing was permitted to be made public until the 26th October, when it was officially announced that the Khalifa had fled from Jeb el Gheddeer, and, it being impossible to pursue him at that time, the Sirdar had given orders for the troops to return to Omdurman. It was added that a reconnaissance to Jeb el Gheddeer would be made by the Cavalry and Camel Corps before their return.
The Sirdar's force, after leaving the river at Kaka, marched on the road to Jeb el Gheddeer as far as a place called Fungar. Here it was found that the Khalifa had got thirty hours' start and was moving in a northerly direction across a waterless district, where it would have been very difficult to follow him, and the evasive Abdullah was therefore allowed to go his way.
Notwithstanding that the official announcement was followed by the return of many of the troops to Omdurman, and by the appearance of the Sirdar in Cairo, people were reluctant to believe in the final abandonment of the expedition, and further developments were expected; nor were such expectations doomed to be disappointed.