Indian man declares himself king of unclaimed land on Egypt-Sudan border
Suyash Dixit said his father was the prime minister and head of military of the new ‘Kingdom of Dixit’.
An Indian man has declared himself the king of unclaimed land in northern Africa, and threatened “war...over a cup of coffee at Starbucks” if someone else claims the area. Suyash Dixit visited Bir Tawil on the Egypt-Sudan border earlier this month, and planted sunflower seeds there, “a traditional way to claim ownership of land”, The Times of India reported on Wednesday.
Bir Tawil is a 2,060-square-km uninhabited area that is claimed neither by Egypt nor Sudan.
In a Facebook post last week, the Indore businessman declared himself the king – King Suyash I – and his father Suyog Dixit the acting prime minister and the military head. He also invited applications to fill other government posts. The capital city of the “Kingdom of Dixit” will be called Suyashpur, he said.
Foreign investment and nationality applications are also open, Dixit’s post read. He pledged to “work for the prosperity of my people of the country and this motherland”.
According to his post, Dixit travelled 319 km through the desert and travelled through “dangerous routes” with his father to reach Bir Tawil. “Following the early civilisation ethics and rule, if you want to claim a land then you need to grow crops on it,” he wrote. “I have added a seed and poured some water on it today. It is mine.”
He ended the post, saying: “This is no joke, I own a country now! Time to write an email to UN [United Nations].” He has written an online petition to the United Nations already, Dixit told The Times of India.
Dixit, however, is not the first person to claim Bir Tawil. An American man had claimed the land in 2014, to gift it to his children, who named it “Kingdom of North Sudan”.