In a spirited speech delivered before army officers and soldiers, Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Military Council, has brought up once again a disputed border region with Egypt, which has long been a source of contention between the two neighboring countries.

In a speech delivered Aug. 24 in the Wadi Seidna military zone in Khartoum on the occasion of the 66th anniversary of the army, Burhan said the army would not abandon an inch of Sudan’s territories. “We shall not abandon or forget our right until the flag of Sudan is raised in Halayeb, Shalateen and every contentious area along the Sudanese borders,” he said.

Burhan said his country’s unity and borders are widely targeted in what revived a long-standing and recurrent conflict between the two countries over the border area controlled by Egypt, known as the Halayeb Triangle, which includes the Halayeb, Shalateen and Abu Ramad areas. It is a conflict that dates back to the British colonial era in 1899.

Ever since the 1950s, Sudan has claimed the Halayeb Triangle that overlooks the Red Sea coast on the Egyptian-Sudanese border, with an area of ​​about 20,580 square kilometers (nearly 5 million acres). Sudan argues that it falls within its sovereignty.