Islamic OIC urges restraint in Sudan-Chad tensions

Dec 25, 2005 (JEDDAH) — The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) urged Sudan and Chad to exercise self-restraint to defuse the rapidly escalating tension between the two neighbors.

The secretary general of the world’s largest Islamic body, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, said the two countries should “demonstrate self-restraint and calm the situation,” following Ndjamena’s accusation that Khartoum was trying to destabilise its government.

He appealed to the two members of OIC to “resort to common sense and mature reflection to resolve this passing conflict through peaceful and brotherly way.”

The African Union said Saturday it had sent a delegation to Chad and Sudan in a bid to defuse rapidly escalating tensions as Chad declared it was in a “state of belligerence” with Sudan.

The mission was sent as already strained ties between the two nations plummeted on Friday with Chad’s declaration, after increasingly bitter accusations have been lobbed back and forth by the two capitals.

Ndjamena charges that Khartoum is trying to destabilise Chad by hosting rebels and a growing number of Chadian army deserters in western Sudan, from where an attack was launched on Chad’s eastern frontier town of Adre last Sunday.

Several new rebel groups have sprung up recently in eastern Chad, a region inundated by some 200,000 refugees from the civil war in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Khartoum had accused Ndjamena of deploying planes and troops on its territory before the latest incident.

(AFP/)