98 years ago

On 4 March a patrol from the UN mission to protect refugees from Darfur in camps in eastern Chad mistakenly strolled over into Darfur and got into a gunfight. A French soldier went missing and has been found dead. Ironically, four Arab nomads were killed as they tried to recover the body when a grenade the French soldier was carrying exploded

Captain Boyd Alexander, a British explorer, ornithologist, and ex-Army officer thought he could persuade Darfur´s Sultan to stop playing off the French in Chad against the British in Sudan and ally himself with the British.

On 29 March 1910 he attempted to enter Darfur from Dar Masalit and was murdered. His Capeverdian man-servant managed to escape and tell the tale.