Tripoli mini-summit fails to ease Sudan-Chad tension

January 27, 2008 (TRIPOLI) — Sudan and Chad failed to defuse tensions along their long border on Sunday, despite a meeting of African leaders in the Libyan capital that also made no progress towards ending the crisis in Darfur.

Relations between Khartoum and N’Djamena have been tense in recent years as both try to quell insurgencies on either side of their frontier. They accuse each other of backing rebels trying to overthrow their respective governments.

The Sudanese minister of state for foreign affairs said that Sudanese and Chadian president have agreed to meet in Addis Ababa to continue their discussion on the border tension. He further added that President Omer Al-Bashir had reiterated Sudan’s commitment to Tripoli agreement.

According to the Sudanese official, Al-Bashir pointed out that Chad didn’t fail to fulfil its obligations with regard to the deployment of joint border patrols affirming that Sudanese monitors are now deployed near the borer.

He further said Sudan denied supporting Chadian rebels.

The Chadian air force carried out the bombing raids inside Sudanese territory in December and January, targeting the positions of rebels opposed to Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno, in power since 1990.

Libya’s Muammar Gadhfi is seen as an influential player in the region and has sought repeatedly to reconcile Chad President Idriss Deby and Sudan’s Omer Hassan Al-Bashir and broker talks between Khartoum and Darfur rebel groups.

Comments from officials leaving the meeting suggested its main purpose was to gather the views of protagonists rather than reconcile them.
“The meeting focused on the situation in Darfur and its effect on the Sudanese border with Chad and Central African Republic,” said Egyptian presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad. “It aimed to expand the base of the Abuja peace agreement.”

Hosted Libya leader, the mini-summit drew together the presidents of Sudan, Chad, Egypt, Senegal, Eritrea, Mauritania and Gabon

Sunday’s mini-summit also examined Gadhafi’s proposal for creating a federal African government, made during the last AU summit in July 2007 in Ghana.

At the 2007 meeting African heads of state expressed reservations with the proposal, which Gadhafi has espoused along with his long-held vision of a “United States of Africa.”

(ST)

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters and AFP