Egypt completely rejects the Sudanese claims – made in a letter sent by the Sudanese foreign ministry to the United Nations to declare Khartoum's rejection of the April 2016 Egyptian-Saudi border demarcation agreement – that the Halayeb and Shalateen areas of southern Egypt fall under Sudanese sovereignty and are being occupied by Egypt, the Ministry of Foreign affairs said in a statement on Thursday.

The ministry's spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid said that Egypt plans to send a letter to the UN secretary-general to state its rejection of the Sudanese letter and the claims included therein, and to confirm that Halayeb and Shalateen are Egyptian land, inhabited by Egyptian citizens under Egyptian sovereignty.