Sudan has filed a complaint to the UN against Egypt for allowing residents of the disputed Halayeb area to vote in the March 2018 presidential election, Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour said yesterday, AFP reports. Egypt has allegedly “also undertaken some fishing and mining projects in the triangle” in the period between December and March, he said, reiterating a not-so-subtle warning that Khartoum would resort to arbitration if diplomacy fails. It appears, however, that Ghandour’s only vision for a successful diplomatic solution sees Egypt relinquishing claim over the disputed border territory, saying that “our position of full sovereignty on Halayeb triangle is something that is not negotiable." The border dispute is one of several issues that have strained Cairo’s relations with Khartoum over the past year, creating a rift the two sides only recently began to slowly mend.

This comes as an Electricity Ministry delegation prepares to visit Khartoum on Saturday to hammer out the details of a planned electricity grid interconnection project with Egypt, Electricity Transmission Company head Gamal Abdel Rehim tells Youm7. Sources said last week that the ministry was gearing up to begin talks with funding institutions to finance the USD 500, 300 MW project, after Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker and his Sudanese counterpart agreed to ramp up efforts to bring the project online.