Senussi campaign

Senussi campaign
Part of the North African theatre (First World War)
Area of operations, Senussi campaign
Date January 1915 – November 1918 Location Western Desert of Egypt, eastern Libya 24°N 25°E / 24°N 25°E / 24; 25 Result British–Italian victory
Belligerents
Senussi Kaocen Rebels  Ottoman Empire Supported by:  German Empire	Italy Italian Tripolitania Italian Cyrenaica  British Empire  United Kingdom  Australia  New Zealand  India  South Africa  France  French Tunisia
Commanders and leaders
Sayyid Ahmed Sharif Omar al-Mukhtar Jaafar Pasha Nuri Bey	William Peyton Alexander Wallace Henry Lukin Henry Hodgson
Strength
Senussi: 10,000 (1915)	Italy: 70,000 British Empire: 40,000
Casualties and losses
c. 2,000	Italian: c. 11,000 (5,600 killed) British: c. 661 (117 killed and 544 wounded)
Non-battle casualties not counted

The Senussi campaign took place in North Africa from November 1915 to February 1917, during the First World War. The campaign was fought by the Kingdom of Italy and the British Empire against the Senussi, a religious order of Arabic nomads in Libya and Egypt. The Senussi were courted by the Ottoman Empire and the German Empire. Recognising French and Italian threats, the Ottoman Sultan, Abdul Hamid II, had twice sent his aide-de-camp Azmzade Sadik El Mueyyed to meet Sheikh Muhammed El Mehdi El Senussi to cultivate positive relations and counter the west European scramble for Africa.^{[1][page needed]} In the summer of 1915, the Ottomans persuaded the Grand Senussi, Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi, to declare jihad, attack British-occupied Egypt from the west and encourage insurrection in Egypt, to divert British forces.

The Senussi crossed the Libyan–Egyptian border in November 1915 and fought a campaign along the Egyptian coast. At first, British Empire forces withdrew, then defeated the Senussi in several engagements, culminating in the action of Agagia, followed the re-capture of the coast in March 1916. In the interior, the band of oases campaign continued until February 1917, after which a peace was negotiated and the area became a backwater for the rest of the war, patrolled by British aircraft and armoured cars.