Sudan’s Beshir holds summit in crisis-hit Darfur with Chad president
KHARTOUM, July 10 (AFP) — Sudan’s President Omar al-Beshir, under international pressure to take action to end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, held a border summit in the war-torn region with his Chadian counterpart Idriss Deby.
The governor of West Darfur state, Suleiman Abdullah Adam, quoted on Sudanese state radio, said the two leaders were to discuss the formation of a joint force to be deployed along the border between their neighbouring states.
Chad’s public radio said they held an initial round of talks immediately after Idriss arrived in the Sudanese town of Geneina, the state’s capital located 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the border.
On Friday, Chad’s interim Defence Minister Emmanuel Nadingar and his Sudanese counterpart, General Bakri Hassan Saleh, discussed the ways and means of deploying a 1,000-strong joint force to patrol the border area.
They also discussed the fate of tens of thousands of Darfuri refugees who have poured across the border into Chad, with Khartoum-backed Arab militias at times in hot pursuit.
Beshir and Idriss were to review the conclusions of the defence ministers’ talks at a second meeting later Saturday.
Chad’s radio said the force’s deployment was contingent on the disarmament of the Janjaweed militias which have been combatting a revolt by ethnic Africans in Darfur alongside the Sudanese army.
The Geneina summit came after US Secretary of State Colin Powell warned on Thursday that the Sudanese government must honour its pledge of immediate action to stop bloodshed in Darfur or face international sanctions.
The vast Darfur region covers three states in the Sudanese federation.
Speaking at a rally in Geneina on Saturday, Beshir said his government would provide returning displaced persons with food supplies, seeds and farming implements.
The government will also resume work on development projects, such as construction of the highway for western Sudan that had been stopped due to the Darfur revolt launched last year, he said, quoted by Sudan’s state radio.
Beshir also expressed thanks to Deby for “all the assistance he has offered” in Darfur.
Beshir and Idriss last met Thursday in Addis Ababa with the presidents of Nigeria and South Africa and a decision was taken for the African Union (AU) to deploy an armed force to protect its ceasefire observers in Darfur as soon as possible.
Chadian Foreign Minister Nagoum Yassoum said in Addis Ababa that the AU force, to which Sudan has raised no objection, would be around 300 strong and that the number of observers would be increased.
The idea of such a force was first raised in late May in an agreement for the AU to monitor a shaky April ceasefire signed by Khartoum and Darfur rebel groups which rose up against the Sudanese government in February 2003.
About 25 AU observers are already on the ground in Darfur, where 15 months of conflict have spawned what the United Nations has termed the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe.
At least 10,000 people have died, another one million been displaced inside Sudan and a further 120,000 have fled to Chad as refugees.
On June 17, armed clashes broke out on Chad’s side of the border between Chadian forces and the Janjaweed militias.
Tension between the neighbours was already running high after the Arab militias penetrated up to 25 kilometres (15 miles) inside Chad on May 5, triggering clashes with the Chadian army.
But Nadingar has said his country will exert “all possible efforts to help the Sudanese reach a peace settlement” in Darfur.