Chad moves to mend ties with neighbour Sudan
July 11, 2006 (N’DJAMENA) — Chad and Sudan have agreed to work to improve security on their volatile common border in a move aimed at patching up diplomatic ties broken off by N’Djamena in April, Chad’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.
Ahmat Allam-Mi had travelled to Khartoum on Monday to deliver a message from Chadian President Idriss Deby to his Sudanese counterpart, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, suggesting moves to mend their relations.
“Chad has expressed its wish to move forward and President al-Bashir has expressed the same willingness,” Allam-Mi told reporters in N’Djamena after returning from Khartoum.
The initiative was a surprising diplomatic turnaround by Deby, who broke off diplomatic relations with eastern neighbour Sudan in April after rebels fighting to oust him attacked the Chadian capital N’Djamena from the east.
He accused Sudan of backing and arming the Chadian rebels, a charge denied by the government in Khartoum which has in turn accused Deby of supporting Sudanese anti-government insurgents in the violent Darfur region.
“The two countries have committed themselves to reducing the insecurity on their frontiers with a view to a swift and peaceful settling of the Chad-Sudan crisis,” Allam-Mi said.
He added exchanges between the two governments would be stepped up but did not say when he thought formal diplomatic relations might be restored.
The minister did not give details of what security measures would be taken along the long, porous border, across which marauding armed groups have roamed freely, killing and terrorising civilians and refugees on both sides.
Neighbours of oil producers Chad and Sudan, especially Libya, have been pressing the two governments to end their dispute and promise not to support rebel groups.
Deby, who has ruled Chad for nearly 16 years after he seized power in a military revolt from the east, won re-election in early May in polls which went ahead despite the threat of rebel attacks and a boycott by leading opponents.
(Reuters)