|
|
Africa: Sudan And Chad Sign Peace Agreement
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
14 March 2008
Posted to the web 14 March 2008
Dakar
The Presidents of Chad, Idriss Deby, and of Sudan, Omar Al-Bashir, signed a new peace agreement in Dakar on Thursday night, intended to put an end to years of hostilities, fed by each government accusing the other of supporting rebel forces in its territory
The agreement, mediated by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, was only signed after many hours of negotiations behind closed doors.
The signing was initially planned for Wednesday, immediately before the opening of the ninth summit of the Organisation of Islamic conference (OIC), which Senegal is hosting, but Al-Bashir proved reluctant. Rather than sign a new agreement, he wanted merely to maintain the Tripoli understanding reached a year ago, despite the sharp deterioration in relations between Chad and Sudan since then.
Relations between the two countries hit a new low in early February when rebels whom Deby says were backed by Sudan attempted to seize the Chadian capital, Ndjamena.
The most important clause in the Thursday agreement commits both sides to ban all activities by armed groups fighting against the other country's government, and the use of their territory for acts of political and social destabilisation. If taken seriously, this would end all cross-border attacks.
|
A special peace and security force will be established to supervise joint security operations along the Sudan/Chad border.
But there have been five previous peace agreements, all of which have broken down on the rocks of mutual suspicions with neither side prepared to make the concessions required to alleviate tensions, and open the road to effective implementation of the agreements.
Thursday's signing ceremony was attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the African Union chairperson, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, the former chair of the AU Commission, Alpha Konare, other African leaders, and representatives of the European Union, France and the United States.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
