Sudan urges Egypt to convince Libya’s Haftar to stop his support to Darfur rebels

August 3, 2017 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour has called the Egyptian government to cooperate on ways to stop the support provided by some Libyan parties to the rebel groups from Darfur region.

Ghandour and his visiting counterpart Sameh Shoukry held Thursday the joint political consultations meeting where they discussed the implementation of outcomes of the joint presidential cooperation committee, held last June, including the strategic cooperation document, the consulate cooperation, border crossing committee, coordination at regional and international forums as well as regional developments.

Speaking at a joint press conference after the end of the meeting, the two minister pointed to the progress achieved in different areas stressing that the hostile media campaign has been stopped. But they didn’t mention the dispute over Halayeb triangle.

Ghandour said the two sides agreed to coordinate at the political and parliamentary levels, adding that the Sudanese Defence Minister will travel soon to Egypt, to discuss bilateral military cooperation.

He further pointed that the political, military and security tracks are interdependent and require a strong will of the leadership in both countries to address all the problems with complete transparency.

The minister further called on his Egyptian counterpart to exert the needful efforts to stop the support of Libyan parties to Darfur rebel group.

Last May, Sudanese officials accused Egypt of providing armoured vehicles to two factions of the Sudan Liberation Movement, one led by Minni Minnawi and the second by Nimir Abdel Rahman. The attackers came from Libya and South Sudan.

However, in a complaint lodged at the UN Security Council, the government didn’t mention Egypt but pointed to Libya’s eastern commander Khalifa Haftar who is accused of using armed groups from Darfur in his efforts to control the troubled country.

Haftar is supported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt.

For his part, Shoukry called for the full implementation of what has been agreed with Ethiopia and Sudan over the construction of the Renaissance Dam and to abide by the international law to preserve the interests of the three countries.

Cairo believes that Addis Ababa should stop the works on the disputed dam until two foreign firms complete a study on the impact of the new dam on the Nile water. But Ethiopia refuses to stop the construction.

Also, he called to enhance the joint security cooperation on counterterrorism saying “We are facing a fierce campaign carried out by terrorist organizations and we need for security cooperation to face this phenomenon,” he said.

(ST)