The confluence of the Nile and its most northern tributary, the Atbarah (Bahr-el-Aswad, or Black River) was a strategic location for military operations. In the Battle of Atbara, fought on 8 April 1898 near Nakheila, on the north bank of the river, Lord Kitchener's Anglo-Egyptian army defeated the Mahdist forces, commanded by Amir Mahmud Ahmad. Kitchener's strengthened position led to a decisive victory at the Battle of Omdurman on 2 September 1898, giving the British control over the Sudan.
The first trade union in Sudan formed in 1946 among railroad workers in Atbarah. The city also is home to one of Sudan's largest cement factories (Atbara Cement Corporation). The town was the centre of the Sudanese railway industry. Few trains are made here now and rail traffic is much reduced. The original station and unusual dome-shaped houses of railway workers remain.
Perhaps because of the influence of the railway unions, Atbara is also considered by many to be the home of Sudanese communism. Jaafar Nimeiri, Sudan's president throughout the 1970s, alternated between communism, rabid capitalism and Islamic fundamentalism - depending on who he was trying to get on his side and extract money from - and the communist phase had its stronghold around Atbara.
Atbara is made up of several districts including Umbukole district which has the First Higher School in Atbara. Other districts include the railway district, Almurabaat, Alsawdana and Almatar.
Umbukole was originally the name given to a capital city in a northern state in Kurti county. It is now mostly remembered as the name of a small district in Atbara. A well-known resident is Mandour Elmahdi who wrote about the History of the Sudan.
Like Khartoum further upstream, Atbara is also at the confluence of two major rivers
