SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis is an attempt to examine the origins of the present international boundaries of the Sudan, to trace their diplomatic evolution, to consider their legal aspects and to state their present status. Special emphasis is laid on the boundary between the Sudan and Egypt because it represents a dormant dispute which must eventually be resolved. The thesis is mainly based upon original and unpublished documents collected by the author from the files of: the Boundary Department in the Ministry of the Interior in the Sudan, the Sudanese Central Archives, the Department of Survey, the Sudan Embassy in Cairo and the Public Records Office in London. The author of the thesis, as Secretary of the Sudanese International Boundaries Commission, and as a member of several Joint Boundary Committees, not only had access to first-hand documents and files and was personally involved in joint boundary negotiations, but also attended boundary meetings where many discussions took place off the record. Part One, an introductory general Survey, is treated as a useful background for studying the boundaries of a State which has common international boundaries with eight other African States. Part Two, forming the main body of this work, examines more closely the diplomatic evolution and legal aspects of the eight boundaries of the Sudan. Chapter VII, dealing with the Sudan-Egypt boundary, reveals that the so-called Anglo-Egyptian Condominium over the Sudan was an illusion; it shows how far a de facto boundary can override a de jure boundary through acquiescence, estoppel and recognition; and it suggests that a political freezing of a boundary dispute without a settlement may add more implications to the unsettled dispute in general and to the question of the critical date in particular. Part Three concludes that, while the interplay of political and legal factors has always existed and has always exercised a marked influence upon the evolution of these boundaries in the pre-independence era, the same interplay between diplomatic and legal factors will have an important bearing upon the final determination of the unsettled issues.