North Africa
After the Atbara joins it in Sudan, the Nile takes in no other tributary before the Mediterranean. Egypt and Sudan hold that stretch between them, divided its flow by treaty in 1959, and disagree about where their common border runs. North Africa here is the Nile part of the desert, and the Maghreb has a region of its own.
Common questions
Questions about North Africa
Which countries does this catalogue file under North Africa?
Egypt and Sudan. The Maghreb is kept as a separate region here, so Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Western Sahara are filed there instead of under this heading. The UN M49 standard puts all seven in one grouping called Northern Africa, and this catalogue splits it because a region a reader can browse is more useful than a region that holds most of a coastline.
Is Sudan in North Africa or East Africa?
It depends on who is filing. The UN Statistics Division lists Sudan under Northern Africa in the M49 standard. The African Union lists Sudan in its Eastern region, with Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, and puts Egypt in its Northern one. Both are current, official and incompatible. The catalogue records both readings and takes no position between them.
How do Egypt and Sudan divide the Nile?
By the Agreement for the Full Utilization of the Nile Waters, signed at Cairo on 8 November 1959. It valued the mean natural flow at Aswan at 84 milliard cubic metres a year, set aside 10 milliards for reservoir losses, and allotted 55.5 milliards a year to Egypt and 18.5 to Sudan. No other basin state was a party to it.
What is the Halayeb Triangle?
The stretch of Red Sea coast that falls between the boundary of 19 January 1899, which runs along the 22nd parallel, and the administrative line drawn on 4 November 1902. Egypt has administered it since 1992 and Sudan claims it. Bir Tawil, the inland remainder of the same disagreement, is claimed by neither.