Sudan denies supporting Chadian rebels

April 1, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese army on Saturday denied reports which said Sudan’s military lent support to rebels who recently carried out a series of attacks in the eastern Chad, slamming the reports as “baseless and lack of evidences and witnesses.”

In a press statement to the official SUNA, Spokesperson of the Sudanese Armed Forces Osman Mohammed al-Aghbash said that the army was completely committed to all international agreements and treaties, especially the Tripoli agreement signed by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Chadian President Idris Deby during a mini African summit in the capital of Libya on Feb. 8. The
agreement calls for a good neighborhood between the two countries.

Both Chad and Sudan promised in the agreement that they would not harbor rebels on their territories or conduct mutually hostile activities. The agreement appeared to put an end to a months-long row during which the two countries traded accusations of destabilization attempts.

“What is happening inside Chad is an internal affair of Chad and has nothing to do with the Sudanese army,” the spokesman added.

Local Chadian media reported that a top Chadian army general was killed in a recent fierce clash in an eastern border area between the army troops and rebel forces backed by the Arab Janjaweed militias who had crossed over into Chad from the neighboring Sudanese province of Darfur.

The Chadian government denounced earlier last month incursions by “Sudanese militias” into its territory and accused Khartoum of “failing to fulfill its promises”, but the accusations were denied by the Sudanese government.

(Xinhua/ST)