For a country, territory is an inviolable resource and this is the reason for many disputes between countries over sovereignty issues. However, there is an area of land that neither of the two countries surrounding it wants to claim. So what is the reason that this land is so rejected?
At the border of Egypt and Sudan, the land of Bir Tawil is a place quite famous with the nickname “Terra Nullius” , or in Latin meaning “nobody’s land”. The cause of the incident stems from the geographical location of Bir Tawil and the nearby Hala’ib area.
While Bir Tawl is an arid land of 2,060 km 2 without any advantages in terms of resources and benefits, the nearby 10 times larger Hala’ib area is quite rich due to its border with the sea as well as its location. favorable for trade.
This is the reason why governments would rather give up Bir Tawil than lose Hala’ib, thereby leading to the irony below.
The 1899 and 1902 boundary between Egypt and Sudan.
Back in 1899 when the British government was still dominating the land, the “Anglo Egyptian Condominium Agreement” defined the border of Egypt and Sudan at the 22nd parallel, through which the Bir Tawil area would belong to Sudan while Egypt control Hala’ib.
However, Bir Tawil was once a sacred land of the Ababda tribe of Egypt, while the peoples living in Hala’ib have a religious culture similar to the Khartoum tribe of Sudan. Therefore, for convenience, the British government redrawn the border in 1902, thereby bringing Bir Tawil to Egypt and Hala’ib to Sudan.
When Sudan became independent in 1956, the government wanted to follow the 1902 border map to control the fertile Hala’ib region, while Egypt wanted to follow the 1899 map to gain benefits. As a result, the Bir Tawil area became an unclaimed place.
Due to not being interested and acknowledged by the governments of the two countries, the land of Bir Tawil became desolate with and and mountains. This area has only a few groups of gold exploration and exploitation, a few guards of the two countries to maintain order and tourist convoys for curious tourists.
In 2011, a tourist named Jack Shenker came to this area to plant a flag of his own design to claim sovereignty, creating a joke for the world.
Jeremiah Heaton claims Bir Tawil.
Mr. Suyash Dixit also claims sovereignty here.
Mr. Dmitry Zhikharev shows the passport of the Kingdom of Mediae Terrae.
In 2014, American tourist Jeremiah Heaton also came here to plant the flag to claim sovereignty, create the “Kingdom of North Sudan” and make his daughter a princess. In 2017, another tourist, Suyash Dixit, also planted a flag to claim this land, creating the so-called “Dixit Kingdom”.
Also in 2017, a Russian named Dmitry Zhikharev announced he was the real owner of Bir Tawil with the name “Mediae Terrae Kingdom”. Mr. Zhikharev said he was recognized by the Egyptian military and even showed a kingdom passport he designed himself.
However, there has not been any official document or verification by either Egypt or Sudan about the above cases and all the claims of these tourists are just jokes.