direct access to Rejaf, the last outpost on the navigable Nile. Although the outbreak of the Mahdist War (1881–1899) had disrupted trade up and down the Nile river, Leopold hoped to gain Rejaf in preparation for its reopening once the Mahdist threat had been addressed. Since 1888, when Mahdist rebels forced the evacuation of then governor Emin Pasha, the Lado Enclave had been occupied by rebels under the leadership of Emir Arabi Dafalla. Rejaf was their strongest fortified position in the area, and it was there Arabi Dafalla stationed his equipment and soldiers. The establishment of Mahdist Sudan had provided the context for European powers to commence the invasion and colonization of the Sudan, in which King Leopold desperately wanted to take part in order to expand his Congolese empire. However, a direct military campaign into the area was not an option; Leopold would not have been able to get permission from either the French or the British according to the rules laid out in the 1884 Berlin Conference, especially considering both nations were looking to annex the Sudan themselves. King Leopold II therefore decided to disguise his campaign into the Sudan as an expeditionary force sent to reclaim the Lado Enclave from the Mahdists, although he intended to give his commanders covert orders to continue their advance far past the boundaries of Belgian territory, first to Fashoda and then on to Khartoum. After receiving a new loan of 6.5 million francs from the Belgian government in 1895, Leopold ordered preparations to be made for the execution of his plan. The expedition was split into two parts. The first group, composed of around eight hundred colonial troops and led by Commandant Louis-Napoléon Chaltin, was to take the main road towards Rejaf and engage the rebels openly. The second, under Belgian war hero Baron Dhanis, was a much larger force of over three thousand men, mostly natives from the Tetela ethnic group, and was to take a treacherous path through the jungle to the north. Both expeditions left for the Lado Enclave in December 1896. Batetela mutiny After being underfed and forced into long, grueling marches through rough terrain for nearly two months, the Batetela in Dhanis' column mutinied against their officers in February 1897. The mutiny broke out in the advance guard, which had been pushed the hardest of those in the expedition, but soon spread to the main army,