Ancient relations Contact between Egypt and Sudan goes back to ancient times, when ancient trades routes have roots to 4000 B.C. The ancient
Kingdom of Kush in northern Sudan and
ancient Egypt engaged in trade, warfare and cultural exchange. During the
New Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt conquered further south into Kushite lands. Later, the Kushites would conquer Egypt, founding the
Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. Afterwards, Egypt would fall to the Persians, Greeks, and later Romans. During this time, Christianity spread to Egypt and Sudan. Egypt was conquered by the
Rashidun Caliphate in 652 AD, but the caliphate failed to spread into Sudan. A peace treaty was signed between Muslim Egypt and Christian Sudan called the
Baqt, lasting centuries. After the
Ottomans conquered Egypt, Sudan gradually converted to Islam.
Egyptian occupation Egyptian conquest and Mahdist uprising While
Egypt was a province of the Ottoman Empire,
Egypt conquered Sudan, led by the Ottoman Governor
Muhammad Ali Pasha, founding the city
Khartoum. After the Egyptian-Ottoman Wars from
1831 to
1841, Egypt became an autonomous
tributary state of the
Ottoman Empire, governed by the
Muhammad Ali Dynasty. During this period, British involvement in Egypt grew. An Anglo-French debt commission was formed that assumed responsibility for managing Egypt's fiscal affairs.
Isma'il Pasha was eventually forced to abdicate in favor of his more pro-British son,
Tawfiq Pasha. The British administrator
Charles Gordon was appointed Governor-General of Sudan. A Sudanese religious leader
Muhammad Ahmad declared himself
the Mahdi and
revolted against Egyptian rule. Egypt, with the support of the British, failed to suppress the uprising, and attempted to evacuate Sudan. Though Gordon was to organize the evacuation of Sudan, he found himself
in the siege of Khartoum by Mahdist forces, eventually leading to his death. The
Mahdist State continued to exist until 1899, when it was
defeated by an Anglo-Egyptian force, establishing Anglo-Egyptian rule until 1956. During this time, the British effectively conquered Egypt after suppressing an
anti-British uprising in 1882.
Condominium Agreement of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan ''The Condominium Agreement of January 19, 1899 provided for a joint administration of the Sudan by the British and Egyptian governments. Yet it was clear from the outset that Egypt's part of this administration was to be purely nominal. The supreme civil and military command of the Sudan was vested in the governor-general, who was nominated by the British government. Thus his appointment by Khedivial decree had few practical implications. It is, therefore, no wonder that during the whole period of the Condominium, all the governor-generals were British, and owed allegiance to the British government.'' ceded to
Italian Libya in 1934
Dark grey:
Egypt and the
United KingdomWhile Sudan was officially a
condominium between the governments of Egypt and United Kingdom, divided from Egypt along the
22nd parallel, in reality the British Governor General effectively ruled Sudan as a colony. After the
Egyptian revolution of 1919 and
declaration of Egyptian independence in 1922, Egyptian nationalists demanded Egyptian authority over Sudan, citing historical connections with 'Unity in the Nile Valley', but British government involvement remained, especially after the assassination of Governor-General
Sir Lee Stack, after which Egypt was forced to retreat all forces from Sudan.
Egyptian nationalism during this time believed that Sudan rightfully belonged to Egypt, though Sudanese revolutionaries such as the
White Flag League supported an independent Sudan. While the
Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936 allowed Egypt to host troops in Sudan, the Sudan remained a
de facto British colony. Two imperial powers, Britain and Egypt, sought to control Sudan. This rivalry led to the rise of Sudanese elites who tended to split into anti-Egyptian and anti-British factions.
1947 negotiations On January 25, 1947, the British government informed Egypt that it intended to prepare the Sudan for self-government, though Egypt opposed self-government for the Sudan. Anti-British resentment in Egypt continued to rise, and on 16 October 1951, the Egyptian government abrogated the agreements underpinning the condominium, and declared that Egypt and Sudan were legally united as the Kingdom of Egypt and Sudan, with
King Farouk as the
King of Egypt and the Sudan. However, King Farouk was overthrown during the
1952 Egyptian Revolution by the
Free Officers Movement, a group of army officers led by
Mohamed Naguib and
Gamal Abdel Nasser, declaring the Egypt a republic in on June 18, 1953. While Naguib, who was half-Sudanese and spent many years of his childhood in Sudan, supported a union between Egypt and Sudan, a treaty was signed in 1953 allowing Sudanese independence after 3 years. In the
1953 Sudanese parliamentary election,
Ismail al-Azhari's NUP received a majority of seats in parliament. Despite winning a majority in the elections, Azhari realized that popular opinion had shifted against an Egyptian-Sudan union. Azhari, who had been the major spokesman for the "unity of the
Nile Valley", therefore reversed the NUP's stand and supported Sudanese independence. On December 19, 1955, the Sudanese parliament, under Azhari's leadership, unanimously adopted a declaration of independence that became effective on January 1, 1956, creating the
Republic of the Sudan.
Relations following Sudanese independence (1956–1969) Nasser was able to politically outmaneuver Naguib, becoming
president of Egypt in 1956. Sudan under Azhari had cordial relations with Egypt, until disagreements in 1958 over the border and water resources. In 1958, a
coup overthrew Azhari's government, while Egypt and Syria formed the United Arab Republic (UAR), a political union that lasted until Syria seceded in 1961. Relations between the UAR and the new Sudanse government under
Prime Minister Abdallah Khalil improved, with both governments signing an agreement over the Nile's water in 1959.
Nile water agreement Water scarcity is a critical concern in the
Horn of Africa, where both Egypt and Sudan rely heavily on the
Nile for survival. As a result, the allocation and management of the river’s waters have long been, and remain, a sensitive matter in relations between the two countries. a transnational union designed as a first step towards the eventual political unification of the three nations. Egypt's president Nasser died in 1970 and was succeeded by
Anwar Sadat. Nimeiry also signed treaties with Sadat, standing by him after
Sadat's peace treaty with Israel in 1978. In 1976, Egypt and Sudan concluded the 1976 Wadi El Nil bilateral agreement, which sought to strengthen bilateral connections between the two states. Under the agreement, citizens of Sudan and Egypt were permitted to enter each other’s territory without visas and were afforded extensive social and economic rights, including access to employment, education, healthcare, and property ownership. That same year, Egypt and Sudan concluded a joint defense agreement in July 1976, under which each country committed to regard an armed attack on the other as a shared threat. The accord provided for mutual defense measures, including military force, as well as coordination through information sharing, consultation in emergencies, and cooperation in defense planning and military development. Egypt's president Sadat was assassinated in 1981, and was succeeded by
Hosni Mubarak. The next year, Egypt and Sudan concluded an integration charter establishing a ten year framework for close coordination in political, economic, and social affairs, reflecting Egypt’s priorities of safeguarding its Nile water interests and discouraging separatist movements in the region. The agreement raised concerns in southern Sudan that Egypt, despite opposing political Islam, might align with the northern government’s efforts to suppress the South. In 1983, Nimeiry introduced
Islamic law in Sudan, including severe criminal penalties and the prohibition of interest based financial practices. This eventually triggered the
Second Sudanese civil war, which ultimately resulted in an estimated two million deaths, displaced around four million people internally, and forced several hundred thousand others to flee the country. Because of the Wadi El Nil agreement, the new wave of Sudanese who fled to Egypt were not required to apply for refugee status.
Political rupture (1985–1999) In April 1985, a
military coup in Sudan overthrew Nimeiry. Mubarak visited Sudan later that year and stated that he would not surrender Nimeiry to Sudan. and replaced by a
totalitarian regime led by
Omar al-Bashir. Relations between the two countries following the 1989 Sudanese coup were unstable, Egyptian authorities subsequently accused the Sudanese government of orchestrating the attack, alleging that senior officials within Sudan’s intelligence services reportedly viewed Egypt as a leading opponent of Sudan’s Islamist project and provided logistical and financial support to the Egyptian Islamist group,
Gama'a Islamiyya, while acting independently of the country’s top political leadership. and to the annulment of the 1976 Wadi El Nil agreement. This cancellation marked a major shift in Egypt’s treatment of Sudanese nationals living in Egypt, who thereafter became subject to visa and residence requirements, increased security scrutiny, and standard asylum procedures applied to foreign nationals.
Al-Bashir revived the controversy in 2010 when he stated that Hala’ib was Sudanese and would stay Sudanese. Egypt's policy on Sudan was that it was in favour of a united Sudan. Egypt sought to postpone the referendum by four to six years, citing concerns that an independent southern state could become unstable and that Sudan’s partition might endanger Egypt’s access to Nile water. Egypt nevertheless began preparing for the possible independence of
South Sudan.
Salva Kiir visited Cairo in 2009, when Egypt made clear it would accept the results of the
January 2011 referendum on secession. ==See also==