From The New Arab:
A man traveled nearly 200 miles to become king of a piece of ungoverned land between Egypt and Sudan and made his dad president of his new kingdom as a birthday present for him.
Suyash Dixit, an Indian national travelled from India to the land of Bir Tawil, an unclaimed area of land between the Egyptian-Sudanese border to claim it for himself and declare himself king of the new-found "Kingdom of Dixit".
"I call myself, King Suyash First from today. I declare this unclaimed land of Bir Tawil as my country from now to the eternity of time. I pledge to continue to work for the prosperity of my people of the country and this motherland," Dixit announced in a Facebook post.
"I travelled 319KM (to and fro) in far desert with no roads to claim this unclaimed land of Bir Tawil. This 800 square miles of land belongs to no country. It is the only place on earth where humans can live and survive but is not a part of any state/country.
"Following the early civilization ethics and rule, if you want to claim a land then you need to grow crops on it. I have added a seed and poured some water on it today. It is mine," he added.
He also claimed his new country's national animal as a lizard, but only because he did not see any other animal there....MOREThere is, at minimum, one prior claimant. Via Opinio Juris:
The Man Who Would Be King, Daddy’s Little Princess, and their Territorial Claim
Somehow related: this morning's "The Financial Times' Izabella Kaminska Examines Seasteading and Is Bemused".
