The original settlement at Khartoum North, Halfaya, was long the largest settlement in the area of the Nile confluence before the Egyptians established Khartoum as their military garrison and administrative center in the 1820s [REF].
On August 20, 1998 the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory was destroyed by a cruise missile because the United States accused the factory of making VX (nerve agent) for al-Qaeda [REF].