Military operations in North Africa during World War I

North African theatre of World War I
Part of the First World War
Anglo-Indian troops of the Hyderabad Lancers in Egypt, 1916
Date 14 November 1915 – May 1916 Location North Africa Result Allied victory
Belligerents
British Empire  South Africa  India  Australia  New Zealand  Egypt  France  French Tunisia  Morocco  Italy  Tripolitania  Cyrenaica	Germany Ottoman Empire Senussi Order  Sultanate of Darfur Zaian Confederation Zawiya Darqawiyya Chaouia tribes Other Moroccan tribes
Commanders and leaders
William Peyton Alexander Wallace Henry Lukin Henry Hodgson Reginald Wingate Philip Kelly Louis-Hubert Lyautey Paul Prosper Henrys Joseph-François Poeymirau	Ja'far al-Askari Nuri Killigil Sayyid Ahmed Sharif Omar al-Mukhtar Ali Dinar † Mouha ou Hammou Zayani  Moha ou Said Ali Amhaouch #

Conflicts took place in North Africa during World War I (1914–1918) between the Central Powers and the Entente and its allies. The Senussi of Libya sided with the Ottoman Empire and the German Empire against the British Empire and the Kingdom of Italy. On 14 November 1914, the Ottoman Sultan proclaimed a jihad and sought to create a diversion to draw British troops from the Sinai and Palestine Campaign. Italy wished to preserve its gains from the Italo-Turkish War. The Senussi Campaign took place in North Africa from 23 November 1915 to February 1917.

In the summer of 1915, the Ottoman Empire persuaded the Grand Senussi Ahmed Sharif to attack British-occupied Egypt from the west, raise jihad and encourage an insurrection in support of an Ottoman offensive against the Suez Canal from the east. The Senussi crossed the Libyan–Egyptian border at the coast in November 1915. British imperial forces withdrew at first and then defeated the Senussi in several engagements, including the action of Agagia. The British recaptured the territory along the coast by March 1916, with the Western Frontier Force of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, which included the 1st South African Infantry Brigade.

Further west, the inhabitants of areas recently conquered or seized by European powers from the Ottoman Empire, exploited the unsettled conditions caused by the war in Europe to regain control of their lands. Uprisings such as the Zaian War, Volta-Bani War and the Kaocen Revolt took place in Morocco and other parts of West Africa against the French colonialists, some of which lasted longer than the war. In Sudan, the Anglo-Egyptian Darfur Expedition took place against the Sultan of Darfur, who was believed to have prepared an invasion of Egypt, to be synchronised with Senussi operations on the western frontier. Operations by the British were conducted by small numbers of men equipped with motor vehicles, aircraft and wireless, which multiplied their effectiveness; the speed of their manoeuvres frequently enabled them to surprise their opponents.