Halayeb-Shalateen Triangle Again Ruffles Egyptian-Sudanese Feathers
Once again, perennial ownership claims on a disputed Egypt-Sudan mineral-rich border triangle that could erupt into a conflict while the world’s attention is focused on Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine, and the South China Sea.
The controversy was reignited last month when Sudanese refugees displayed a map of Sudan placing the towns of Halayeb and Shalateen within that country’s borders, which Egypt has long administered and claimed to be Egyptian territory.
According to the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat, social media users in Egypt circulated images of Sudanese shops and educational institutions in Cairo and Alexandria dispaying maps of Sudan including the Halayeb and Shalateen region.
“Observers warned against these practices, stressing that they ‘will cause problems for Sudanese residing in Egypt,’” the report said.
Egyptian media reported that authorities deported the owner of a Sudanese products market in Cairo who had placed a map of his country on the storefront, including the Halayeb region, on the grounds it “violated Egyptian rules, conditions and laws.”
The UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said as of June 20, 2024, it had 388,785 Sudanese refugees registered in its database.
Amnesty International claims some “500,000 Sudanese refugees are estimated to have fled to Egypt after the armed conflict erupted in Sudan in April 2023.”
Following the controversy sparked by the map issue on social media, Asharq Al-Awsat said the “Sudanese products store” page on Facebook stated “the error in the logo was not intentional, and had no political dimensions, and that it had been removed.”
Elsewhere, Sudanese educational institutions, grocery stores and a barber shop that had displayed Sudan’s map with the contested region within those borders also apologized for what they said was an unintentional error.
Social media denizens in Egypt had posted an 11-minute video of a shop in the northern port city of Alexandria where the controversial map was hanging.
Why the big fuss?
Egypt and Sudan almost came to blows in 1993 over the Halayeb region, said to be rich in manganese and Sudanese-Egyptian relations have been tense, see-sawing between acceptable to near explosive.
The triangle is 1,000 kilometers (622 miles) from Cairo, at latitude 22, which Egypt claims is its southern frontier, and borders the Red Sea to the east.
Although most cartographers have traditionally placed Halayeb squarely within Egyptian borders, Sudan has repeatedly insisted the territory is Sudanese.
Every so often the dispute reignites in both countries over whether Egypt or Sudan can claim ownership of the triangle, while Cairo maintains control of the area, Asharq Al-Awsat said, adding that official Egyptian statements had claimed sedition was the reason for rousing the issue.
In 2022, Egyptian Streets reported that “an air of mistrust and intrigue plague the Egyptian-Sudanese border regions, for decades, the Halayeb-Shalateen Triangle has been a source of entrenched political difference and conflict” with border communities caught in the crossfire but determined to push for regional stability.
“A once isolated and remote region in Egypt, the Halayeb and Shalateen Triangle, is now attracting an abundance of adventurers looking to experience the area’s unique culture and untouched wilderness,” it added.
The Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation’s Desert Research Center maintains a research station in the Halayeb and Shalateen zone.
In 1993 Sudan began complaining that Egyptian technicians, engineers, military troops and entrepreneurs were setting the stage for international metals and petroleum companies to exploit the riches.
Official Sudanese media claimed at the time Egypt had begun prospecting for manganese and that metals experts, shadowed by armed guards, were seen surveying the area, which Khartoum deemed provocative.
What further angered Sudan were Egyptian media reports that Egypt had signed an agreement with Japan and Germany to export 15,000 metric tons of ferromanganese bars worth $75 million and aimed at producing high-quality steel.
Another batch of 20,000 metric tons were meant for use at an Egyptian plant in the Sinai.
Egypt has a thriving iron and steel industry and a large domestic market but also exports its metals production.
Ironically, the Halayeb mines had been shut down decades earlier when Egyptian authorities under the late President Anwar Sadat believed they were no longer a source of marketable quantities of the metal.
But manganese exports in early 1993 were one measure taken by the government of then President Hosni Mubarak, the successor since Sadat’s assassination on October 6, 1981, to ensure Egypt’s sovereignty over the triangle.
Since 1899, the disputed territory remained under a shaky status quo imposed by the British colonial powers whereby territorial sovereignty was exercised by Cairo while sovereignty over the residents was imposed by Khartoum.
Controversy over the region began to intensify when Canada’s International Petroleum Co. sought concessions from Sudan in 1991, thereby triggering an outburst from the state-run Egyptian General Petroleum Corp., which regulates oil activities in Egypt.
The Canadian company had apparently been unsuccessful in a previous attempt to find oil in Egypt and looked to Sudan, with a nod from Ottawa.
Further exacerbating matters, President Mubarak in December 1992 insisted Cairo would make “no concessions” over Halayeb and accused the Sudanese junta of sponsoring “terrorist operations” in North Africa in conjunction with Iran — a charge denied by the Khartoum government.
Manganese, known as the chemical element Mn, is essential to iron and steel production, notably since it reportedly enhances the manageability of steel at high temperatures. It is also an alloying agent for aluminum.
It is also used as an additive in unleaded gasoline, helping to boost octane rating and reduce engine knocking, and, is available in alkaline batteries.
South Africa, Australia, China, Brazil, and India are major players in the manganese mining business.
Sudan, once considered a potential breadbasket for the Arab world, is an African country rich in natural resources.
It shares the waters of the Nile River with Egypt and several other African countries, many of which have repeatedly called for revision of the treaty allocating each country’s allotment of that vital resource.