 The great outbreak of rinderpest affected eastern Sudan from 1889, and together with the harsh taxation and demands from the Mahdist Emir of Kassala, Hamed Wad Ali, this led to famine.The Shukria tribe was greatly reduced by starvation, and the areas around Kassala it had once cultivated returned to desert.Some of the Shukriya were displaced towards the south and the eastern borders of Sudan, while new people moved into the Butana.