OWN CORRESPONDENT, N’djamena | Sunday 9.00pm.
The Sudanese government has meanwhile announced that it wants a ceasefire with southern rebels. However it stopped short of agreeing to a truce declared by the rebels a few days ago.
The SPLA said on Thursday that it will extend by another three months a cease-fire set to end on Wednesday in southern Bahr el-Ghazal province to allow relief food to reach civilians stricken by famine.
A statement issued by the Sudanese office of state minister for foreign affairs, Bishop Gabriel Roreg, said the government hoped to “realise peace in the homeland in a comprehensive cease-fire”.
Sudan’s army warned that rebels will use the truce to re-arm.
Meanwhile Sudanese opposition forces said on Sunday that some 1000 soldiers from Chad have arrived in the southern Sudanese town of Juba to support government troops.
The Sudanese government has in recent weeks likewise accused opposition forces of receiving assistance from Ugandan and Eritrean troops, and has gone so far as to bomb Ugandan bases inside Ugandan territory.