Bir Tawil: Unclaimed Land No One Wants

Located at the southern border of Egypt and at the northern border of Sudan is Bir Tawil. This piece of land that measures 800 sq miles or 2060 sq km is both uninhabited and unclaimed by any country.

Now how is this possible, how have there been centuries of war over territory and land yet there is still a piece of a pie unclaimed?

Bir Tawil’s terra nullius or no man’s land status resulted from a discrepancy between political boundary between Egypt and Sudan. In 1899 the United Kingdom held authority in the area, the border between Egypt and Sudan was set on the 22nd parallel as outlined in the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium Agreement. Things get complicated though as in 1902 the UK drew a separate administrative boundary which was to reflect the land use by tribes living in the region. Two pieces of land were under dispute, first Bir Tawil which both nations don’t want and the Hala’ib Triangle which is this much larger piece of land with coastal access. The Ababda tribe based near Aswan used the land of Bir Tawil for grazing so it was added to Egypt’s borders where the Hala’ib Triangle was culturally closer to Khartoum which is Sudan’s capital.

The situation today is that Egypt claims the original 1899 political border is the correct one where Sudan claims the administrative border of 1902 is the actual border. This essentially has both countries fighting over the Hala’ib Triangle and either of them wanting Bir Tawil. On this map here we can see the yellow area as Egypt’s claim to land, blue being Sudan’s claim to land and the green as the contested area.

If we take a quick look at this place it’s no surprise no one wants it, this hot, sandy desert terrain has no signs of life, no water and no infrastructure. Just sand and rock. Regardless how hostile this environment is, Egypt and Sudan’s territorial war has opened the door for random people to claim Bir Tawil.

In 2011 Jack Shenker planted a multicolored flag sporting a yellow fox as it’s center logo, on Bir Tawil. Jack had been writing an article for The Guardian based on research he was conducting in Bir Tawil and decided to claim the territory for himself.

In 2014 Jeremiah Heaton, an American citizen traveled to Bir Tawil solely for the purpose of claiming the territory. His daughter wanted to be a real princess, so for her birthday that year her dad made it happen. Jeremiah along with his friend Omar flew to Sudan, chartered a jeep and made the 14 hour, 1 way trek to Bir Tawil. This journey to northern Sudan crosses land inhabited by thieves and bandits then works its way through to the remote and jagged mountains. This was no deterrent for Jeremiah and Omar though as they made it to Bir Tawil where Jeremiah claimed the territory as the new sovereign state of the Kingdom of North Sudan. Being head of state Jeremiah made his daughter Emily a princess of the kingdom. He posted all of this to facebook which he was met with praise for being a great father as well as hate for being an imperialist. He started a crowdfunding campaign with a goal of a quarter million dollars that he hoped to use to develop Bir Tawil. The campaign only pulled in $10,638 which is still surprising in itself.

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bir_Tawil
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/03/welcome-to-the-land-that-no-country-wants-bir-tawil
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-world-s-first-crowdfunded-nation#/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=212&v=B_ZMdgJGaJc
http://www.jackshenker.net/special-features/welcome-to-the-land-that-no-country-wants.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro5jmvu4jkM

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Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/bluewednesday

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Intro music thanks to Machinmasound:
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