Eritrea to appoint ambassador to Sudan

April 3, 2006 (ASMARA) — Eritrea said Monday it would soon appoint an ambassador to Sudan in what it called a sign of the improving relationship between the two neighbors after a decade of frosty ties.

“We will appoint an ambassador to Sudan and he will arrive there in the near future,” Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu said.

“It is a step forward, the beginning of the process of normalisation between the two countries,” he said.

Eritrea and Sudan withdrew their ambassadors and closed their common border in 2002 after Khartoum accused Asmara of supporting an offensive by Sudanese rebels on its territory and both sides traded steady streams of invective.

Officials at the Sudanese embassy in Asmara were not available for comment, but other diplomatic sources said Khartoum was also expected to appoint soon an ambassador to Eritrea.

Over the last decade, relations between the two countries have been strained by mutual accusations that each was harboring rebel groups hostile to the other.

Rebels from eastern and western Sudan still have offices in Asmara, but Eritrea says it only provides them with political support, and has denied previous accusations from Khartoum that it gives them military aid.

But following implementation of a January peace deal that ended Sudan’s 21-year north-south civil war and as Eritrea stepped up saber-rattling rhetoric with Ethiopia, Asmara and Khartoum agreed to resolve their differences.

(ST)