Sudan, Chad agree to implement previous non-aggression deals
March 13, 2008 (DAKAR) — Sudanese and Chadian presidents agreed Thursday to prevent rebel groups operating along their joint borders from destabilizing the region.
In a break during the first day of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit in Dakar, Omer al-Bashir and Idriss Deby committed themselves to implement past accords that they failed to implement in the past two years brokered by Libya in 2006 and by Saudi Arabia in 2007.
“We solemnly pledge to ban the activities of all armed groups and to prevent the use of our respective territories to destabilise one or other of our states,” said the agreement, brokered by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.
The latest pact foresees the formation of a “contact group” made up of foreign ministers from Libya, Congo, Senegal, Gabon, Eritrea and officials from regional bodies, who will meet monthly to ensure the deal — known as the Dakar agreement — is implemented in good faith.
Wade, who has sought to mediate in several African crises, drafted the accord signed by Deby and Bashir in the hope that signing it during the summit, in the presence of so many international witnesses, would lend it some extra weight.
The signing, witnessed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) head Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, also aims to revive a string of past pacts that have failed to end fighting on both sides of the Chad-Sudan border.
Hours before the signing of the deal, Chad’s government issued a statement Thursday accusing Sudan of launching “several heavily armed columns” against Chad on Wednesday. The Chadian government called the fighters “mercenaries,” its term for Chadian rebels it accuses Sudan of backing, and said they had crossed from Sudan and reached a border town, Moudeina.
The French defence ministry in Paris said Thurday that French military forces deployed in Chad have “not for the moment detected” any rebel columns crossing from Sudan.
General Mahamat Nouri, leader of the main Chadian rebel network said that there was no new offensive by his alliance, which some six weeks ago swept across northern Chad from bases in Sudan to penetrate the capital before being repulsed.
There is no new offensive, nothing is going on,” he said.
Nouri accused the Chadian government of looking for a pretext to avoid signing a peace deal with Sudan, which was to have been concluded in Dakar by Deby and his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir.
(ST)
Information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters