evidence: That was in 1899. Then, three years later, realising that the border drawn dead straight from east to west had failed to take into account the ethnic makeup of the area, Britain pencilled in a new boundary. The 1902 amendment brought the region of Hala’ib on the Red Sea under Sudan’s control. Bir Tawil meanwhile, was transferred to Egypt. Given that Hala’ib was a coastal region of potentially significant mineral wealth, whilst Bir Tawil was little more than an arid desert, Cairo refused to acknowledge the new boundary and the material losses it would entail. More than 120 years later, both states still loudly assert sovereignty over Hala’ib, leaving a permanent scar across their bilateral relations. Correspondingly, neither country can make a claim to Bir Tawil, as to do so would contradict the right to administer Hala’ib. It renders this 800 square mile triangle in the Nubian Desert a diplomatic Terra Nullius, land which no state claims and no nation on Earth seems to want. [...] Egypt and Sudan both formally gained their independence from the UK in 1956. Their relations over much of the next 50 years were centered on a common reliance on the Nile for their water supply, but the border dispute over Hala’ib and, by extension, Bir Tawil, remains a sensitive issue; Sudan reluctantly withdrew its military from the region only in 2000. The wider region too is stalked by political instability. It has derailed efforts to build infrastructure on the land before.