Chad welcomes Libyan initiative over row with Sudan

Jan 24, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The Chadian Foreign Minister, Ahmat Allam-Mi , has declared his country’s welcome of the Libyan mediation to settle the Sudan-Chad tension, according to the Sudan News Agency.

The Chadian minister, on the sidelines of a AU summit here said that he expected Libya to play a positive role for the solution of the tension in the relations between Sudan and Chad, especially that Libya is politically and geographically near to both Sudan and Chad.

On Thursday 19 January 2006, the Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi proposed, the deployment along the volatile Sudan Chad borders of three thousand soldiers from the current African Union force in Darfur to close these borders in the face of the rebels from both sides.

Chad accused Sudan of sheltering and backing Chadian rebels who last month attacked a town on its eastern border with Sudan. Their relationship has since deteriorated after Chad declared a “state of belligerence” with Khartoum.

The dispute has cast a shadow over Sudan’s hosting of the AU summit, which Chad says should be held elsewhere.

Sudan last week called on Chad to agree to a Libyan proposal to set up joint patrols in border regions as a way to resolve the ongoing border disputes.

(ST)