The Anglo-Egyptian Darfur Expedition of 1916 was a military operation by the British Empire and the Sultanate of Egypt, launched as a preemptive invasion of the Sultanate of Darfur. The sultan of Darfur Ali Dinar had been reinstated by the British after their victory in the Mahdist War but during the First World War he grew restive, refusing his customary tribute to the Sudanese government and showing partiality to the Ottoman Empire in 1915.