Chad’s Deby meets Obasanjo over crisis with Sudan

Dec 27, 2005 (LAGOS) — Chadian President Idris Deby on Tuesday met African Union (AU) chairman, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo, over the growing tension between Chad and neighbouring Sudan, a reliable source in Obasanjo’s entourage said.

“President Deby … is meeting Obasanjo at his farm house in Otta (60 kilometres, about 40 miles north of Lagos),” a journalist in Obasanjo’s entourage told AFP by telephone.

Shortly before Deby’s arrival, Obasanjo had met a special envoy of Sudanese President Omar El-Beshir, who presented a special message to the AU chairman, the source said.

The special envoy, Mustapha Osman, left Otta before the arrival of the Chadian leader and details of his meeting with Obasanjo were not disclosed, said the same source.

Chad is a co-mediator in the Sudanese peace talks on the crisis in Darfur. The talks are being hosted by Nigeria.

A source close to the Chadian presidency had said in Ndjamena that Deby would during the meeting in Otta brief the AU chairman on the existence of “agression against Chad by the regime in Sudan.”

Tension has been on the rise in the past days between Chad and Sudan following an accusation by Ndjamena that Khartoum was harbouring and supporting Chadian rebels who attacked a Chadian Adre locality last December 18.

Khartoum has denied the allegation.

Last Thursday, Deby accused Beshir of wanting to destabilise his country and said Sudan “merited” neither hosting a forthcoming AU summit, scheduled for January 23 and 24 in Khartoum, nor Beshir becoming the next chairman of the continental organisation.

Deby late Monday called for an extraordinary summit of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa before that of the AU.

The AU has in the past few days sent a delegation to Ndjamena and Khartoum as part of efforts to reduce the tension between the two countries.

(AFP/ST)