Battle of Sokoto

Battle of Sokoto
	; Some of the dead and wounded being finished off by a British officer after the battle
Date	15 March 1903
Location	Sokoto, Sokoto Caliphate13°03′44″N 5°14′02″E / 13.06222°N 5.23389°E
Result	British victory fall of Sokoto city to the British Empire; start of Caliph Muhammadu Attahiru's hijra; installation of Sultan Muhammadu Attahiru II;
Belligerents
British Empire Protectorate of Northern Nigeria;	Sokoto Caliphate
Commanders and leaders
Frederick Lugard; Lt. Col. George Kemball; Major Thomas Morland;	Muhammadu Attahiru I; Muhammadu Maiturare (WIA); Ibrahim, Sarkin Rabah;
Strength
656 rank and file; 400 carriers; 25 officers; 5 NCOs; 2 medical officers; 1 medical NCO; 4 Maxims;	~4,000 infantry; ~2,000 cavalry;
Casualties and losses
1 dead; 2 wounded;	~100

The Battle of Sokoto was fought on 15 March 1903 between the British Northern Nigeria Protectorate and the Sokoto Caliphate in present-day northern Nigeria. In the face of British aggression, the Caliphate's leaders were divided over whether to respond with force, pursue martyrdom, or make a mass hijra (pilgrimage to Mecca) to avoid Christian rule. After the British captured Sokoto, they installed a puppet sultan with reduced powers under the Protectorate, while the fugitive Caliph Attahiru I was pursued and killed at the Battle of Burmi in July 1903, marking the formal end of the century-long Caliphate and the beginning of colonial rule over Northern Nigeria.