They disrupted the mail service, which could not proceed unless it had a guard of about five hundred men.

Abd al-Qadir Pasha was urging a method to re-establish communication lines with Darfur, either via the desert route known as Tarq al-Arba'in or via Tarq Mahra al-Nuzal. If such a plan were implemented, its least result would be to reinforce the Darfur garrison so that it could pursue the Mahdist propagandists out of the country and stand in the way of the Mahdi and the Melloola between him and Darfur.

If the government had taken Abd al-Qadir Pasha's advice and refrained from sending General Hicks' expedition, as will be discussed later, the result would have been satisfactory and decisive against the Mahdi in Kordofan. But alas, the sword of disgrace preceded it.

However, I will say this: after ignoring Abd al-Qadir Pasha's advice, the government allowed the Mahdi to gain control of Sudan and accepted the massacres and atrocities committed by the Mahdi. The first of these massacres was General Hicks' expedition, which was sent like a flock of sheep attacked by wolves from all sides.

If we say that the government was excused because of the Arab revolt and was unable to prevent the aforementioned massacres, then the expedition of General Hicks was the first of these massacres.

It is known that the money Abd al-Qadir Pasha requested for these operations did not exceed one hundred thousand pounds. With this meager sum, the government could have saved the rest of the expenses it recently incurred to eliminate the Mahdist state, which has since devastated the country and turned it into ruins that will not recover their former state for a century.