The Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Ibrahim Ghandour and his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, held a joint press conference Saturday to address the countries’ longstanding dispute over the territory that sits upon their shared border: the Hala’ib Triangle. Egypt has maintained sovereignty over the region since the early 1990s.
Ghandour announced that Sudan is renewing its complaint against Egypt in the UN Security Council in a bid to save its historical rights to the area. Sudan initially filed its complaint that during the presidency of Gamal Abdel Nasser, to save its historical rights.
Ghandour stressed that only way to solve the land dispute is by an appeal to dialogue between Sudan and Egypt.
Soukry declared that Egypt and Sudan are committed to finding an agreement to serve the interest of the two peoples, and to achieving economic development in the face of international and regional threats.
Egyptian-Sudanese border disputes over the Hala’ib Triangle first arose in January 1958, when the Egyptian government sent a memo to the Sudanese government to object to a new election law issued by the Sudan on 27 February 1958.
Shortly after Sudanese independence from Britain and Egypt, Sudan planned to hold elections in the Triangle. President Nasser deployed troops to the area for a short period of time to secure the area ahead of the referendum for the United Arab Republic.
Until 1992, the two countries jointly controlled the area, until Egypt protested Sudan’s concession of exploration rights of the Hala’ib Triangle to a Canadian oil company.
In 2014, Cairo signed contracts with companies for gold exploration in the area. Khartoum responded by deploying a force of marines.
