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Bir Tawil flag claim (Egypt/Sudan)

Last modified: 2014-09-20 by ian macdonald
Keywords: bir tawil | egypt | sudan |
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[Bir Tawil Flag claim] image by Olivier Touzeau, 15 July 2014

See also:


About the flag

Reported in:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-man-plants-flag-claims-african-country-calling-it-kingdom-of-north-sudan/2014/07/12/abfbcef2-09fc-11e4-8a6a-19355c7e870a_story.html?tid=pm_local_pop and
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/american-dad-stakes-claim-to-african-kingdom-of-north-sudan-so-his-daughter-can-become-a-princess-9605410.html

Jeremiah Heaton, an American father raised this flag for his daughter, then six years old, who was “big on being a princess” over an unclaimed 800-square-mile patch of arid desert between Egypt and Sudan on 16 June, 2014.  The flag is flag blue with four stars and a crown on a rocky hill. The area, named Bir Tawil by locals, has now been called the “Kingdom of North Sudan” by Mr Heaton and his family.
Richard Mallett, 15 July 2014

The more surprising fact in this micronational story is the fact that he got permission from Egyptian authorities to travel there and could really plant his daughter's flag in Bir Tawil. Bir Tawil being the only terra nullius left, many micronational projects do claim it, but as far as I know it is the first time a real flag for such a project makes its way to this territory.
Olivier Touzeau, 15 July 2014

It's also a very real flag, in that different specimens differ slightly. Both flags in the photographs seem to confirm to a description like this (but please improve if you can):
Blue, with centred a light blue disk with a yellow crown, and from that crown radiating outward to the edge of the disk 24 narrow, tapering red rays, around that disk, but not touching it, a yellow ring, its outside undulating, above it a yellow five-pointed star and below it three white five-pointed star, all equidistant from the centre of the disk. A ceremonial version of the flag has a white fringe. But otherwise they differ quite a bit; I see differences in the shades of the colours, the shape of the crown and the directions of the stars.

I like the way the rays come from the crown, not from the centre of the disk. In general, the design is a cut above the upside-down existing nations' flags and never mind the throw-everything-in designs. Maybe a tad like an American state, but then it has the advantage of not being as cluttered as the seals on blue.

I refrained from trying to copy this message to the royal family as it appears they have enough on their plate already.
http://www.businessinsider.com/interview-with-jeremiah-heaton-king-of-north-sudan-2014-7

Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 14 August 2014