Zubeir into Fort Dupleix. His successor Liotard had a new fortified building erected. This was done with regard to the strategic importance of the location as a potential key hub for the expeditionary force of General Jean-Baptiste Marchand in its quest to expand France's control of territory up to the Nile. Following the Fashoda incident and the Franco-Egyptian treaty of 1899 which ceded Bahr El Ghazal to the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, the French forces left the post in 1900. Anglo-Egyptian Condominium (1899-1955) In 1900, an Anglo-Egyptian "reoccupation" force of Egyptian and Sudanese soldiers entered Bahr El Ghazal. Most of them had reportedly been recruited from the defeated Mahdist army and "were chiefly ex-slave natives of the Province", which caused some unease amongst the population. The first British officer to conduct a patrol to Deim Zubeir was Major William Boulnois in early 1901. His mission found that <blockquote>"the shrunken remnant of the population, constantly raided not only by the Azande but by other groups, had in despair given up all attempt either to keep livestock or to cultivate. Forced down to the level of primitive 'hunters and collectors', they now existed 'chiefly on the natural resources of the forest - roots, seeds, wild honey, fruit and wild beasts'''." </blockquote> One year later, Captain Arthur Murray Pirie officially "occupied" the place for the annexation of Bahr El Ghazal, but was soon recalled for a punitive expedition. The first inspector to head the post was an Egyptian officer, who was soon succeeded by the Scottish Lieutenant David Comyn. According to Santandrea, Comyn "found only one building worth mentioning, namely the newly erected fort of the French". However, Comyn writes in his memoirs that he also saw "the charred remains of the stockade" of Sulaiman's fortifications. Even a decade later, one of Comyn's successors wrote that "the burnt stumps of his stockade, and the mud walls of his houses" were still visible. Soon after his arrival Comyn ordered the construction of a new fort "to take the place of the one of green brick built by the French", since the competition with the Congo Free State for control of Southern Sudan was not over yet. From 1902 on, negotiations were conducted between London and Brussels, accompanied "by provocative incidents": In this context, Belgium's King Leopold II ordered a "scientific" mission to Bahr El Ghazal under Charles Lemaire and Louis Royaux in 1902. Its vanguard led