by Captain André Landeghem reached Deim Zubeir in February 1903, but the Condominium government of Sudan prevented the expedition from moving on to the copper-rich area of Hofrat en Nahas and Landeghem aborted the mission. Leopold gave up his claims to the Southern Sudan only in 1906, in return for keeping a part of it as the Lado Enclave for the duration of his reign. In 1903, Deim Zubeir became the capital of the Western District of Bahr al-Ghazal. In 1905, Comyn was assisted by a Syrian medical doctor, an Egyptian police officer and a scribe. The number of "irregular troops" at the time was around 120, recruited mainly from the local population. Comyn himself claimed that under his command Deim Zubeir became a "pioneer of red-brick buildings in Southern Sudan". According to South Sudan historians M.W. Daly and Øystein H. Rolandsen, "immediate profits were realized from confiscation and sale of the zaribas' stored ivory." A doctoral thesis by a South Sudanese historian found that the introduction of tax collecting under Comyn in 1904 was particularly unpopular, since harsher conditions were applied than in neighbouring districts. Locals who could not pay taxes were forced to do road construction work instead. Daly concludes that "the most noticeable effect of 'administration' of this type was the recalcitrance of those administered." In his memoirs, Comyn defended himself against his contemporary critics as follows: "The hardship and discontent which arose was, I am sure, due to the fact that, in the neighbouring district of Wau, everything that was refused at Dem Zubier — i.e. rifles, ammunition, spirits, money, &c. — was freely scattered." According to some sources, the administrative headquarters of the Western District of Bahr al-Ghazal were moved from Deim Zubeir to Raja in 1906, according to others in 1907 or early 1908, against the opposition of local leaders in Raja. Deim Zubeir residents at the time included a substantial number of ex-soldiers and former slaves, who had lost their ethnic ties and converted to Islam with Arabic as lingua franca. Refugees from French Equatorial Africa (FEA) settled in Deim Zubeir during this time as well, but were displaced by the British-led colonial administration back to FEA in 1912. Living conditions at the time were particularly hard, since the area of Deim Zubeir was heavily infested with tsetse flies, which transmits the sleeping sickness. At the same time, slave trade did continue in