The Sudanese government deposited with the UN Security Council the coordinates of the baselines from which its maritime areas are measured, including the Halayeb and Shalateen triangle, Sudanese newspaper Sudan Tribune reported on Saturday.
Halayeb and Shalateen is a triangle of no more than 20 square kilometres, located at the Egyptian-Sudanese border at the Red Sea. The conflict over the area began in 1958, following the demarcation of borders between the two countries shortly after Sudan gained its independence.
The Sudanese action comes two days after Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry’s visit to the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
“Sameh Shoukry did what he had to do, and Sudan cannot go to the International Court without Egypt’s approval,” Hany Raslan, an expert on Sudan and Nile basin countries’ affairs at the Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies (ACPSS), told Daily News Egypt.
“The Sudanese actions are part of an organised campaign against Egypt, including the Saudi-Sudanese military trainings along the Egyptian-Sudanese border and hinting at the issue of the Nile Basin and the cooperation with Ethiopia,” Raslan added.
“The Republic of Sudan declares its rejection and refusal to recognise the provisions of the declaration issued by the Arab Republic of Egypt on 9 January 1990, titled Presidential Decree No. 27, which touches on the Sudanese maritime border, North of Line 22, which was included within the maritime coordinates announced by Egypt within its maritime borders on the Red Sea in paragraphs 56-60,” read Sudan’s declaration according to the Sudan Tribune.
Relations between Egypt and Sudan have suffered since July 2013, when democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi was ousted from power. In the past couple of years, multiple issues have caused tensions between the two countries.
