Senegal to invite leaders of Sudan, Chad for talks
Aug 03, 2006 (DAKAR) — Senegal’s president is hoping to bring his counterparts from Chad and Sudan together for peace talks next week, officials said Thursday.
The governments of Chad and Sudan signed a peace deal late last month to stem cross-border raids and rebel attacks, but tensions between the two nations remain.
President Abdoulaye Wade is hoping to bring Chadian President Idriss Deby and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir together for talks in Dakar on Aug. 9, a senior presidency official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he is unauthorized to speak to the media.
Wade starts a five-day tour of the two countries Friday that is also expected to take him to Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region before he returns Tuesday. Wade is expected to meet both Deby and al-Bashir during the trip.
Chad and Sudan have accused each other of fomenting instability, and Chad blamed Sudan for backing an unsuccessful rebel attack on its capital, N’Djamena, on April 13. Khartoum denied any involvement.
Decades of low-level clashes in Sudan’s Darfur over land and water erupted into crisis in early 2003 when ethnic African rebel groups rose up against the Arab-led government, which responded by unleashing ethnic Arab militias known as janjaweed, who have been accused of atrocities. The Sudanese government denies backing the janjaweed but agreed under a May 5 peace agreement with the largest rebel group to disarm and disband them.
The conflict in Darfur has left more than 180,000 people dead and driven 2 million from their homes. Some 235,000 Sudanese refugees from Darfur fled across the border in Chad. An estimated 50,000 Chadians have also fled their homes near the border.
(AP/ST)