Sudan and Chad To End Hostilities

Dec. 27 (EIRNS)—Sudan and Chad have reached an agreement to end hostilities between them, Muawiya Osman Khalid, spokesperson of the Sudan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced from Khartoum today, according to the Sudan Tribune. Khalid said that the two countries had agreed to stop all forms of hostilities at both the military and the media levels. Chad Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat was in Khartoum last week, where he met Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Dec. 24, and held talks with Presidential advisor Ghazi Salahudeen Atabani and intelligence chief Mohamed Atta al-Moula.

Manipulated attacks on the governments of Sudan and Chad by anti-government rebels of each country, who sought refuge in desert areas of the neighboring country—many of them in Darfur—have been used as a justification for the false accusation of genocide against the Sudan government. The pro-British United States Ambassador to the UN, Susan E. Rice, still charges that there is ongoing genocide in Sudan, even though death rates in the region are now lower than they were before the manipulated conflict began.

According to today's announcement in Khartoum, political engagement will increase between Sudan and Chad, and a Sudanese military delegation will travel to Ndjamena, capital of Chad, within two weeks, to discuss implementation of security and military issues covered in the signed agreement.

The Chadian Consul in Khartoum, Hussein Jeddah, today said his country would ban the activities of the Sudanese rebels inside its territories as part of the deal signed between the two countries. He confirmed that Sudan had moved Chadian rebels 400 kilometers back from the joint border of the two countries.

Khalid, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the motivation for the agreement is not for short term, tactical reasons, nor is it related to the peace process in Darfur, but is a strategic issue for two countries that have interdependent interests.

Liu Guijin, special representative of the Chinese government on African affairs, was in Sudan, Chad, and Addis Abeba, Ethiopia (headquarters of the African Union) in June. He announced at that time that he would hold talks on the peace process in the Darfur region, and on Sudan-Chad relations.