Khartoum North the area of the Nile confluence before the Egyptians established Khartoum as their military garrison and administrative center in the 1820s. It was thereafter eclipsed by the Egyptian Khartoum, its Mahdist replacement Omdurman, and the British refounding of Khartoum following their reconquest of the country in 1898. Khartoum North began to grow again, however, as the southern terminus of the Sudan Military Railroad, which was completed in 1899. (The Blue Nile was bridged in 1910 and the line extended to Sennar, but Khartoum North continued to serve as the main railroad station and yard.) On August 20, 1998 the Al-Shifa
Khartoum North pharmaceutical factory was destroyed by a cruise missile because the United States accused the factory of making VX (nerve agent) for al-Qaeda. The industrial centre of the region and the country, the neighborhood contains dockyards, marine and rail workshops, and sawmills. Khartoum North trades in cotton, grains, fruit, and livestock; industries include tanning, brewing, brickmaking, textile weaving, and food processing. Since the year 2000, chemical plants supplying household products to the rest of the country have been built in the neighborhood . A wealthy suburb is growing towards the eastern part of the neighborhood , along the Blue Nile. Khartoum