Bank of Khartoum government prepared Bank of Khartoum for privatization. The government then sold a 60 per cent share to Dubai Islamic Bank in 2005. The next year, Islamic Development Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Sharjah Islamic Bank and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank founded Emirates and Sudan Bank in Khartoum as a fully Islamic bank. The year after, Bank of Khartoum announced that it was merging with Emirates and Sudan Bank. The merger took effect in 2008. Dubai Islamic's ownership will drop to 28 percent of the merged bank. The Sudanese government will own 10 percent of the bank, while Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank
Siege of Khartoum support of the Mahdi, and cut the Egyptian traffic on the Nile and the telegraph to Cairo. Communications were not entirely cut, as runners could still get through, but the siege had begun and Khartoum could only rely on its own food stores, which could last five or six months. On 16 March an abortive sortie from Khartoum was launched, which led to the death of 200 Egyptian troops as the combined forces besieging Khartoum grew to over 30,000 men. Through the months of April, May, June, and July, Gordon and the garrison dealt with being cut off as food