Kufra

Kufra الكفرة Cufra
Kufra Location in Libya
Coordinates: 24°11′N 23°17′E / 24.183°N 23.283°E / 24.183; 23.283
Country	Libya
Region	Cyrenaica
District	Kufra
Time zone	UTC +2
License Plate Code	20

Kufra (/ˈkuːfrə/) is a basin^[1] and oasis group in the Kufra District of southeastern Cyrenaica in Libya. At the end of nineteenth century Kufra became the centre and holy place of the Senussi order.^[1] It also played a minor role in the Western Desert Campaign of World War II.

It is located in a particularly isolated area, not only because it is in the middle of the Sahara Desert but also because it is surrounded on three sides by depressions which make it dominate the passage in east-west land traffic across the desert. For the colonial Italians, it was also important as a station on the north-south air route to Italian East Africa. These factors, along with Kufra's dominance of the southeastern Cyrenaica region of Libya, highlight the strategic importance of the oasis and why it was a point of conflict during World War II.