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The Hala’ib Triangle

About 20,000 km² of Red Sea coast and desert that Egypt and Sudan both claim. Egypt points to the 22nd parallel it agreed with Britain in 1899; Sudan to the 1902 line that put the triangle under Khartoum. Egypt has held it since sending troops in 1995, and Sudan renews a complaint at the UN Security Council to keep the claim alive.

Written from cited sourcesLast checked 28 September 2026Suggest a correction

EGYPTSUDANRED SEAHala’ibShalateen
22nd parallel (1899 line) Hala’ib TriangleThe triangle, outlined from OpenStreetMap. The site’s map data draws the 22nd parallel as the border, which puts Hala’ib in Egypt.

See it on the globe:Egypt →Sudan →

Two lines

The Anglo-Egyptian agreement of 19 January 1899 set up joint British and Egyptian rule over Sudan and defined Sudan as “all the territories south of the 22nd parallel of latitude”.[3] That straight line cut across the lands of nomadic groups. On 25 July and 4 November 1902, Egypt’s Minister of the Interior drew an administrative boundary so that each group and its wells stayed under one government: the Bisharin under Sudan’s, the Ababda under Egypt’s.[3]

The new line put a triangle north of the parallel, beside the Red Sea, under Sudan’s administration, and a smaller area south of it under Egypt’s.[3] The first is Hala’ib; the second is Bir Tawil. For more than half a century Sudan ran Hala’ib. Its people held Sudanese nationality and voted in Sudan’s first parliamentary elections in 1953.[5]

The 1958 crisis

Sudan became independent in 1956. Its transitional constitution defined its territory as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan as it stood on 1 January 1956; Egypt said a document drawn up by one side alone could not override the 1899 agreement.[5] The quarrel broke into the open in February 1958, when Sudan prepared to hold elections in the triangle and Egypt planned to hold its own vote there, on union with Syria.[5]

Egypt offered to swap its area south of the parallel for the two Sudanese areas north of it. Sudan sent troops to Hala’ib, and on 21 February an Egyptian official raised Egypt’s flag at Abu Ramada, north of Hala’ib.[5] Sudan asked the UN Security Council to meet, warning the situation “may develop into armed conflict”. The Council met on 21 February, the day Egypt announced it would postpone the question until after Sudan’s elections. By 25 February the Egyptian flag had come down.[5]

Egypt takes control

For decades both countries sent administrators, and the triangle stayed open to traders and travellers from both sides.[1][2] In the early 1990s Sudan gave a Canadian oil company the right to explore off the coast. Egypt objected strongly, and the company pulled out until the question of sovereignty was settled.[1]

In 1995 President Hosni Mubarak survived an assassination attempt in Ethiopia and partly blamed Sudan. He then ordered Egyptian troops into Hala’ib, and Egypt has controlled the area ever since.[1][2]

A claim kept alive

Sudan argues that Egypt did not object to its control of the area until 1958, and raised no objection when it recognised Sudan’s independence in 1956. Egypt says the area lies within its borders under the 1899 agreement, and points to a 1909 survey map that places it in Egypt.[4]

In 2016, days after Egypt agreed to hand two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, Sudan’s foreign ministry called for direct talks on Hala’ib, or international arbitration if Egypt refused.[4] In December 2017 President Omar al-Bashir wrote to the UN to condemn the Saudi–Egyptian agreement for recognising Hala’ib as Egyptian, and both countries recalled their ambassadors in January 2018.[1] Sudan renews its 1958 complaint at the Security Council regularly, because an item not renewed for three years drops off the Council’s agenda; it did so again on 4 January 2021.[2]

Timeline

  1. 189919 January 1899

    The 22nd parallel

    The Anglo-Egyptian agreement makes the parallel the northern limit of Sudan.[3]

  2. 19024 November 1902

    Administrative line

    A decree puts the triangle north of the parallel under Sudan’s administration.[3]

  3. 1953

    Sudanese elections

    The triangle’s people vote in Sudan’s first parliamentary elections.[5]

  4. 195820 February 1958

    Appeal to the UN

    Sudan asks the Security Council to meet, alleging a “huge infiltration” of Egyptians.[5] It has kept the complaint alive ever since.[2]

  5. 1990s

    Oil rights

    Sudan licenses a Canadian company to explore offshore; Egypt objects.[1]

  6. 1995

    Egyptian troops

    Egypt takes control of Hala’ib.[1][2]

  7. 2016

    Talks or arbitration

    Sudan calls for negotiations or international arbitration.[4]

  8. 2018

    Ambassadors recalled

    Both countries recall their ambassadors after Sudan protests to the UN.[1]

More disputed places

Sources

  1. [1]
    Egyptian-Sudanese Relations on the Mend, but Tensions Remain · Arab Center Washington DC (Gregory Aftandilian) · 16 April 2018
  2. [2]
    Sudan renews complaint against Egypt over Halayeb · Middle East Monitor · 24 February 2021
  3. [3]
    International Boundary Study No. 18: Sudan – Egypt (United Arab Republic) Boundary · The Geographer, US Department of State · 27 July 1962
  4. [4]
  5. [5]
  6. [6]
    Halaib Triangle (relation 4081614) · OpenStreetMap contributors

    The outline, clipped to Natural Earth’s 1:50m coast.

Map geometry from Natural Earth via world-atlas. See credits.

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