2008 attack on Omdurman and Khartoum that the War in Darfur, previously confined to western Sudan, reached the country's capital. Overall, the war has claimed the lives of up to 300,000 people, with 2.5 million more made homeless since 2003 (the United States has labeled the conflict in Darfur as genocide, a charge the Sudanese government has rejected). Despite decades of warfare in Southern Sudan, Khartoum had not experienced any street fighting since 1976. On May 10, 2008, Sudanese National Islamic Front (NIF) government troops and a large group of rebels from Darfur clashed in the city of Omdurman, opposite of Khartoum. Witnesses reported heavy gunfire
Khartoum (state) Nile State, and in the west by North Kurdufan. There are several etymologies for the name of Khartoum. The explanation suggested as "most correct" by the state government's website is that it comes from the Arabic for "elephant's trunk", which describes the shape of the site of the city at the confluence of the two Niles, where a stretch of land extends into the water. Other stories are that it is a corruption of "gurtoum", the name for seeds of the sunflower plant, supposedly used by Roman invaders at the current site of Khartoum to treat soldiers' wounds, or that