Eritrea–Sudan border
A 686 km line from the Red Sea to the Ethiopian tripoint, laid out by Italian and British surveyors after Italy took Eritrea. It has had no modern survey. In January 2018 Sudan closed it and sent troops to Kassala amid regional tensions; a year later, facing protests at home, President Omar al-Bashir reopened it.
Written from cited sourcesLast checked 30 September 2026Suggest a correction
See it on the globe:Eritrea →Sudan →
An old colonial line
The border mostly follows a course laid out by Italian and British colonial surveyors. It was first delimited in 1898, soon after Italy took control of Eritrea, and an Anglo-Italian commission demarcated it the next year. It was adjusted and re-marked several times in the colonial period, but instability in both countries since independence has meant no modern survey.[1]
Closed and reopened
In early January 2018 President Omar al-Bashir declared a six-month state of emergency in Kassala and North Kordofan, which his government said was to fight arms and food trafficking, and Sudan closed its border with Eritrea. It sent more troops to Kassala amid reports that Egypt had deployed troops in Eritrea, at a time of tension that pitted Sudan and Ethiopia against Egypt and Eritrea.[3][2]
A year later, facing weeks of protests against his rule, Bashir went to Kassala and announced that the border was open again.[2]
“I announce here, from Kassala, that we are opening the border with Eritrea because they are our brothers and our people. Politics will not divide us.”[2]
Timeline
More borders
Sources
- [1]Eritrea–Sudan Land Boundary · Sovereign Limits
- [2]Embattled Sudan president reopens Eritrea border closed for a year · Africanews (AFP) · 1 February 2019
- [3]Sudan deploys more troops to Eritrea border · Al Jazeera · 15 January 2018
Map geometry from Natural Earth via world-atlas. See credits.