The Sebuku River is a river in

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

that flows from Sabah, Malaysia to Nunukan, in the province of

North Kalimantan North Kalimantan () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. North Kalimantan borders the Malaysian states of Sabah to the north and Sarawa ...

, Indonesia.

Geography

The river flows in the northeastern area of

island with predominantly

tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest climate or equatorial climate is a tropical climate sub-type usually found within 10 to 15 degrees latitude of the equator. There are some other areas at higher latitudes, such as the coast of southeast Florida, United States ...

(designated as ''Af'' in the Köppen-Geiger climate classification), and into the

Celebes Sea The Celebes Sea ( ; ) or Sulawesi Sea (; ) of the western Pacific Ocean is bordered on the north by the Sulu Archipelago and Sulu Sea and Mindanao Island of the Philippines, on the east by the Sangihe Islands chain, on the south by Sulawes ...

. The rivermouth is fronted by a small island called Pulau Senelak. A

tidal bore A tidal bore, often simply given as bore in context, is a tidal phenomenon in which the leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave (or waves) of water that travels up a river or narrow bay, reversing the direction of the river or bay's cu ...

occurs 3 days before and after spring tides, and its wave are high and rapid and can cause considerable damage to small craft.

History

The river was once claimed as part of the southernmost border of the influence of

Sultanate of Sulu The Sultanate of Sulu (; ; ) is a Sunni Muslim subnational monarchy in the Philippines, Republic of the Philippines that includes the Sulu Archipelago, coastal areas of Zamboanga City and certain portions of Palawan in today's Philippines. H ...

along the Northern-East Coast on what was North Borneo (Sabah) on the island of Borneo in the 19th century. These claims of 'ownership' were disputed by the Brunei Sultanate. Whilst some historians, mainly from the Philippines have claimed the evidence of such ownership was featured in the 1878 grant by Sultan of Sulu to British North Borneo Company, this has been disputed by Sabah and Malaysia historians. No records of any Sulu towns, cities or centres of ownership ever existed historically or archeologically in the east coast of North Borneo. Any evidence of Sulu Sultanate influence was through piracy, kidnapping and raiding of native North Borneo villages to sell its victims as slaves in the slave markets in the Sulu Sea islands as part of a greater commerce and trade that enriched the Sulu and Moro's. However, what has been agreed is that the Sulu Sultanate or their agents did collect annual tributes from coastal village chiefs and did trade with coastal and river communities. The Sulu were not natives of North Borneo and were islanders in the Southern Philippine region. At the end of the 19th century, this river again became a point of contention between the

British North Borneo North Borneo (usually known as British North Borneo, also known as the State of North Borneo) was a British protectorate in the northern part of the island of Borneo, (present-day Sabah). The territory of North Borneo was originally establish ...

and Dutch Borneo, since the British regarded this river as its southernmost border with the Dutch, while the Dutch assumes a further northern boundary at Batu Tinagat,

Tawau Tawau (), formerly known as Tawao, is the capital of the Tawau District in Sabah, Malaysia. It is the third-largest city (or town)While Tawau have a population of more than 100,000 of which is considered city elsewhere in the world it is offic ...

. The boundary dispute was settled in 1899 with a compromise solution of a border between these two extremities.

References

Rivers of North Kalimantan Rivers of Sabah Sebuku basin {{coord, 4.04638, N, 117.47482, E, display=title

Geography

History

See also

References