Hala'ib Triangle - History

History

In 1899, when the United Kingdom held hegemony in the area, the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium Agreement for Sudan set the political boundary between the territories at the 22nd parallel. However, in 1902 the British drew a separate "administrative boundary," which assigned administration of the territory of the Ababda tribe south of the 22-degree latitude line to Egypt, and gave the Sudan the grazing land of the Beja tribe north of the line to administer. The Sudan-administered territory comprised about 18,000 km2, including the towns of Hala'ib, Shalatin and Abu Ramad. When Sudan became independent in 1956, Egypt regarded the latitude 22 territorial boundary of 1899 as the border between the two countries, while Sudan held to the claimed 1902 administrative boundary. As a result, both Egypt and Sudan claim sovereignty over the territory. Conversely, the area south of the line which had been administered by Egypt, Bir Tawil, is a terra nullius, claimed by neither country.

In February 1958, two years after Sudanese independence, with Sudan planning to hold elections in the Triangle, President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt sent troops into the disputed region for the referendum of the proposed unification between Egypt and Syria in the United Arab Republic. but withdrew them the same month.

Although both countries continued to lay claim to the land, joint control of the area remained in effect until 1992, when Egypt objected to Sudan’s granting of exploration rights for the waters off the Triangle to a Canadian oil company. Negotiations began, but the company pulled out of the deal until sovereignty was settled. In July 1994, Sudan sent memoranda to the United Nations Security Council, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the Arab League complaining about what it claimed was more than 39 military and administrative incursions by Egypt into Sudanese territory since Sudan had last filed memoranda in May 1993. In January 1995 Egypt rejected a Sudanese request for the OAU Foreign Ministers' Council to review the dispute at their meeting in Addis Ababa. Then, after an unsuccessful assassination on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak when he arrived in Addis Ababa to attend the meeting, Egypt accused Sudan of complicity, and, among other responses, strengthened its control of the Hala'ib triangle, expelling Sudanese police and other officials.

In 1998, relations between Egypt and Sudan bettered somewhat, and the countries announced their intention to work together to resolve the Hala'ib Triangle dispute, with increased cooperation between their security forces. Later that year, though, Sudan accused Egypt of harassing Sudanese citizens in the area, a charge which Egypt denied. Nevertheless, by March 1999, the countries were in diplomatic discussions aimed at improving relations between them. During a visit to Egypt by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in December 1999, a joint communique was issued pledging to solve the Hala'ib dispute "in an integrational brotherly context..."

In January 2000, Sudan withdrew its forces from the area, effectively ceding control of the border zone to Egypt, whose forces have occupied and administered the area since.