Lado Enclave



The Lado Enclave was an exclave of the Congo Free State and later of Belgian Congo that existed from 1894 until 1910, situated on the west bank of the Upper Nile in what is now South Sudan and northwest Uganda.

History
Previously a part of the Ottoman-Egyptian province of Equatoria, Lado came under the control of the British, who, under the stipulations of the 1894 British-Congolese Treaty, leased the area to King Leopold II of the Belgians for the period of his lifetime. In exchange, Leopold agreed to cede a strip of land in eastern Congo when construction of the Cape to Cairo railway was to begin. The enclave had an area of about 15000 sqmi, a population of about 250,000 and had its capital at the town of Lado.

A Congo Free State force under Louis Napoléon Chaltin reached the Nile at the town of Bedden in the enclave in February 1897. Chaltin defeated the Mahdists there in the battle of Rejaf. This consolidated Léopold's claim to the Upper Nile, but Chaltin did not have the forces to do more, although he had been instructed to continue on towards Khartoum.

The northernmost post was Kiro, on the west bank of the Nile a short distance above the British post at Mongalla. Edward Fothergill visited the Sudan around 1901, basing himself at Mongalla between Lado to the south and Kiro to the north, but on the east shore of the river. By his account "Kiro, the most northern station of the Congo on the Nile, is very pretty and clean. Lado, the second station, is prettier still". However, he said that although the buildings were well made, they were too closely crowded together.

The Lado Enclave was important to the Congo Free State as it included Rejaf, which was the terminus for boats on the Nile. Rejaf was the seat of the Commander, the only European colonial official within the enclave, who were in place from 1897 to June 1910. Efforts were made to properly defend Lado against any possible incursion by another colonial power, with twelve heavy Krupp fort guns installed in November 1906.

On 10 June 1910, following Leopold’s death, the district became a province of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and in 1912 the southern half was ceded to Uganda, then a British protectorate. Later Gondokoro, Kiro, Lado and Rejaf were abandoned by the Sudanese government, and no longer appear on modern maps.

CFS and Belgian Commandants of the enclave
Commandants Supérieur of Uele and the Lado Enclave 17 Feb 1897 - Nov 1897 Louis Napoléon Chaltin (1st time) Nov 1897 - 15 Dec 1898 Léon Charles Edouard Hanolet (1st time) 15 Dec 1898 - 1 May 1900 Jean Baptiste Josué Henry de la Lindi 1 May 1900 - Mar 1902 Louis Napoléon Chaltin (2nd time)(s.a.) Mar 1902 - Jan 1903 Léon Charles Edouard Hanolet (2nd time)(s.a.) Jan 1903 - 24 Mar 1904 Georges François Wtterwulghe 24 Mar 1904 - 1904 Florian Alexandre François Wacquez (acting for Wtterwulghe to 8 May 1904) 1904 - May 1907 Ferdinand, baron de Rennette de Villers-Perwin (acting to Aug 1906) Chief of the Lado Enclave Zone 1899 - 1900 Gustave Ferdinand Joseph Renier Commandants of the Lado Enclave 1900 - Jan 1903 Gustave Ferdinand Joseph Renier (s.a.) Jan 1903 - Aug 1903 Albéric Constantin Édouard Bruneel

Aug 1903 - Mar 1905 Henri Laurent Serexhe Mar 1905 - Jan 1908 Guillaume Léopold Olaerts Jan 1908 - Apr 1909 Léon Néstor Preud'homme Apr 1909 - 1910 Alexis Bertrand 1910 - Jun 1910 Charles Eugène Édouard de Meulenaer

Sources and references

 * Hochschild, A. King Leopold's Ghost, Mariner Books, 1999. ISBN 0-618-00190-5
 * Pakenham, T. Scramble For Africa, Harper Perennial, 1991. ISBN 0-380-71999-1
 * WorldStatesmen: The Sudan