Al Fashir, Al-Fashir or El Fasher ( ar, الفاشر) is the capital city of
North Darfur,
Sudan. It is a large town in the
Darfur region of northwestern Sudan, northeast of
Nyala, Sudan.
[
]
"Al-Fashir" (description)
''Encyclopædia Britannica
The ( Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various ...
'', 2007, webpage:
A historical
caravan post, Al-Fashir is located at an elevation of about .
[ The town serves as an ]agricultural marketing
Agricultural marketing covers the services involved in moving an agricultural product from the farm to the consumer. These services involve the planning, organizing, directing and handling of agricultural produce in such a way as to satisfy farm ...
point for the cereals and fruits grown in the surrounding region. Al-Fashir is linked by road with both Geneina and Umm Keddada Umm () means ''mother'' in Arabic. It is a common Arabic feminine given name and generic prefix for Semitic place names. It may refer to:
Places Bahrain
*Ain Umm Sujoor, an archaeological site
*Umm an Nasan, an island
*Umm as Sabaan, an islet
Egy ...
. Al-Fashir had 264,734 residents , an increase from 2001, when the population was estimated to be 178,500.[
Al Fashir University was created in 1990 by decree of President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, and was officially opened in February 1991 in premises west of El Fasher Airport and south of the El Fashir School.
]
History
Late in the 18th century, Sultan 'Abd al-Rahman al-Rashed of the Darfur Sultanate
The Sultanate of Darfur was a pre-colonial state in present-day Sudan. It existed from 1603 to October 24, 1874, when it fell to the Sudanese warlord Rabih az-Zubayr and again from 1898 to 1916, when it was conquered by the British and integra ...
moved his itinerant court (''fashir'') to a site called Rahad Tendelti while campaigning in the region of northern Darfur as it was a superb spot for a settlement and grazing, eventually the site was renamed to Al-Fashir. A town developed around the sultan's palace grounds.[ It was one of the cities ]Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart ( , born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; Presumption of death, declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Earhart was the first women in aviation, female aviator to fly solo acro ...
visited while attempting to circle the world.
Climate
Al-Fashir has a hot arid climate ( Köppen ''BWh'') with three distinct seasons. There is a bone-dry and relatively "cool" season from October to February when temperatures are merely hot by afternoon and comfortable in the mornings, which gives way to a sweltering and equally arid "hot season" from March to May with high temperatures around and morning lows of . The Sahel
The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid c ...
ian monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal osci ...
arrives in June and lasts until September, creating a short wet season
The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the se ...
that produces virtually all the year's rainfall of around , accompanied by extremely unpleasant conditions with much higher humidity than during the remainder of the year.
Economy
Due to the nearby Abu Shouk and Al Salam IDP camps with the influx of humanitarian aid from the United Nations as a result of the Darfur crisis, the city has experienced a significant economic and population boom. Rents and retail sales increased, including the selling of bottled water and the opening of a pizza parlor to cater to the demand from western aid workers. The number of gas stations has tripled in three years as a result of the increase in the amount of automobiles in the city. Employment opportunities also increased as the United Nations offered jobs to citizens. Economics analyst Adam Ahmed stated that the "people f Al-Fashir
F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''.
Hi ...
are beginning to think in a more business-minded way" to make the most of their situation.[Sanders, Edmund]
A Darfur capital is a humanitarian boomtown
''Los Angeles Times'', 2008-04-30.
See also
* Chad
Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Repub ...
– border country near Nyala, Sudan.
* History of Darfur
Notes
External links
Adventures of Sudan: Al-Fashir
Historical weather for Al-Fashir
{{Authority control
Fashir
State capitals in Sudan
Capitals of former nations
Fashir