Sudan renews claims of border dispute with Egypt

Sudan’s foreign minister has reaffirmed his country’s stance on the disputed border region of the Halayeb Triangle stressing that the matter will either be settled at a presidential level or by an international boundary court of justice, the Sudan Tribune reported.

Addressing the country’s National Assembly, Ibrahim Ghandour told parliamentarians that Sudan lodges complaints to the United Nation’s Security Council every year against the presence of Egyptian troops in the region. During his recent visit to Cairo the two sides had agreed to resolve the issue between the President of Sudan, Omar Al-Bashir, and his counterpart, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, the minister explained.

We will resolve it either by direct dialogue or by international arbitration.

Sudanese press reports on Monday said that the Egyptian authorities in Halayeb renewed their detention of several prominent leaders of the Bishareen tribe accusing them of smuggling and sheltering Sudanese citizens in the region.

The reports indicated that Bishareen and Ababda tribes have lodge complaints to Egypt complaining about “improper treatment”.

The head of the Red Sea MPs bloc at the parliament, Ahmed Issa Haikal, told lawmakers that the Egyptian army’s behaviour towards residents of Halayeb is an attempt to provoke Sudan into war to conceal Egypt’s support for armed rebels in Darfur who are fighting to overthrow the government in Khartoum.

Map of Halayb Triangle, a territory disputed by Egypt and Sudan [Google Map]

The Halayeb triangle is a 20,580 kilometre area on the Red Sea and has been a contentious issue between Egypt and Sudan since 1958, shortly after Sudan gained its independence from the British-Egyptian rule in January 1956. The area has been under Cairo’s full military control since the mid-1990s