African Union to send peace mission to Chad and Sudan

October 11, 2008 (ADDIS ABABA) — The African Union announced last Friday it is sending a peace mission to Chad to try to ease long-running tensions between Ndjamena and neighbouring Sudan.

“The African Union Commission is dispatching a mission to Chad… led by Burundi’s former president Pierre Buyoya,” following a decision in June by the bloc’s Peace and Security Council (PSC), the AU said in a statement.

“During its visit, the delegation will meet with Chadian authorities and other partaking groups,” the statement added.

The AU said the delegation will also travel to Sudan at a date to be arranged shortly.

In June the 15-member PSC — Africa’s top conflict prevention body — asked the AU Commission to send a mission to the two countries to gather information on their shared border and try to mediate a peace deal.

Relations between Chad and Sudan have long been difficult, with each country denying the other’s accusations that they are supporting rebel movements fighting against their respective regimes.

Tensions worsened in 2003 when war broke out in Sudan’s western province of Darfur, causing hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee across the Chadian border and sparking UN fears of a regional conflict.

Sudan then broke off diplomatic relations with Chad in May after Darfur rebels of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) launched an attack near the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

Chad denied any involvement in the incident.

(AFP)