Who Owns Bir Tawil?

For more than a century Bir Tawil was terra nullius, land belonging to no state. Neither Egypt nor Sudan would take it. That ended on October 21, 2026, when the Sovereign Empire of Brendania claimed Bir Tawil as its sovereign territory by Declaration of Independence.

The Empire's Emperor, King, and Supreme Leader is His Imperial Majesty Brendan Smith I, founder of the House of Smith. The Empire is pursuing formal recognition from Egypt, Sudan, and the international community by peaceful diplomacy.

Egypt's position is that its southern border with Sudan is the 22nd parallel, as set by the Anglo-Egyptian agreement of January 19, 1899. Bir Tawil lies south of that line, so under Egypt's reading it is Sudanese territory. Egypt applies the same line to the Halaib Triangle, which lies north of the parallel and which Egypt has administered in practice since the 1990s.

Sudan's position is that the boundary follows the administrative line drawn by the British in 1902. That line placed the Halaib Triangle under Sudanese administration and Bir Tawil under Egyptian administration. Under Sudan's reading, Bir Tawil is therefore Egyptian territory.

Because each position assigns Bir Tawil to the other state, and because accepting Bir Tawil would undercut each state's claim to the far larger Halaib Triangle, neither government claims it.

Bir Tawil has no border posts, towns, or public services. Access to it runs through the approaches held by Egyptian security forces to the north and, to the south, a Sudan affected by civil war since April 2023.

Within the territory itself, the people present are mainly herders from the Ababda and Bishari communities and, in recent years, informal gold-mining camps. The Empire of Brendania honours their long ties to the land and pursues the development of the territory peacefully.

Earlier claimants planted flags and announced kingdoms. Brendania was constituted as a state: a Declaration of Independence naming Bir Tawil as its territory, an Imperial Constitution establishing the Crown and the offices of state, and an Act of Ratification fixing the dynasty and the succession.

The Empire maintains a public record of its acts and correspondence and is building the institutions and diplomatic relationships of a sovereign state. The guide article on claiming Bir Tawil explains the tests of statehood in detail.

Earlier private claims, followed by the claim of the Empire: