Sudan to participate in mini-summit on tension with chad
January 26, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese president Omer Al-Bashir will fly to Libya Sunday to participate in a mini-summit on Sudan-Chad tension.
Sudan and Chad signed an accord in Tripoli in February 2006 banning the two countries from supporting each other’s rebels and to normalize diplomatic relations. However the two countries continued to trade accusations over rebels support and didn’t implement the provisions of February deal.
The five-state summit will discuss ways to ease the recent tension between the neighboring countries following the repeated incursions of the Chadian army inside Sudanese territories in December and January.
The meeting will include Libya, Eritrea and Egypt which are the sponsors of Tripoli deal.
Sudanese State Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Al-Samani Al-Wasila said that the summit would discuss developments of the situation between Sudan and Chad.
He pointed out that Sudan is committed to the signed agreements and adheres to self-restraint policy by not escalating the situations that will lead to instability in the area and the African continent.
He stated that Sudan has closed its border before the Chadian rebels in implementation of Tripoli agreement. But Chadian president Idris Deby said he driven rebels out of the country and they are now based inside the Sudanese territory.
Deby, who has backing from French troops permanently based in the central African nation, initially came to power in 1990 in a rebellion launched from eastern Chad and has faced successive bouts of insurgency.
Sudan, which repeatedly says can crush Chadian army, has a joint defence agreement with Egypt and any escalation in the conflict could lead Cairo to intervene. Egypt had urged international community to mediate in order to ease the tension between the two countries.
(ST)