Contact between Egypt and Sudan goes back to trade and conflict during ancient times. In 1820, Egypt conquered Sudan, and continued to occupy the country, later as a condominium under the British, until Sudan declared independence in 1956. Sudan later joined the Arab League, of which Egypt is a founding member. Relations between successive governments in Egypt and Sudan have warmed and cooled relations at various times. Relations today are cordial, but tensions remain.
History
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.While 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. The National Umma Party under Sayyid Abd al-Rahman al-Mahdi supported Sudanese Independence from Egypt, while the National Unionist Party (NUP) under Ismail al-Azhari favored union with Egypt.
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. The Egyptian government sought the removal of British troops in Sudan, and because of the historical connection between Egypt and Sudan, Sudan should be granted self-government under a political union with Egypt. 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. The Nile flows through Sudan before reaching Egypt. An estimated 95% of all Egyptians depend on the Nile for fresh water. In 1959 the two countries concluded the Nile Waters Agreement, which was a formula for sharing the water, whereby Sudan was authorized to use approximately one quarter of the flow and Egypt about three quarters. The division was predicated on a set annual flow, which varied enormously from year to year. There was usually a surplus above this amount.
Relations during the Nimeiry era (1969-1985) In 1969, a conspiracy of Sudanese officers led by Colonel Jaafar Nimeiry overthrew the Sudanese government. Nimeiry adopted a pro-Arab nationalist political position, including signing the Tripoli Charter with the UAR and Libya, 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. Nimeiry subsequently lived in exile in Egypt until 1999. In April 1989, Sudan’s prime minister Sadiq al Mahdi announced the cancellation of the joint defense agreement with Egypt, citing its conclusion under Jaafar Nimeiry, while the Egyptian government neither confirmed nor denied that the agreement had been terminated.
A civilian government was established in Sudan, but it was overthrown three years later by the 1989 military coup, and replaced by a totalitarian regime led by Omar al-Bashir.
Relations between the two countries following the 1989 Sudanese coup were unstable, and deteriorated sharply in June 1995, when an assassination attempt occurred as assailants opened fire on Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak’s convoy in Addis Ababa, while he was attending an Organization of African Unity summit. 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. Sudanese officials denied state responsibility for the attack and called these claims "unjust and unsubstantiated" in a UN letter.