Sudan and Chad are ready to work to restore relations, three months after N’djamena broke off ties over alleged Sudanese backing of a failed coup, a foreign ministry spokesperson in Khartoum said on Tuesday.
Chadian Foreign Minister Ahmat Allami arrived in Khartoum late on Monday and went into talks with his Sudanese counterpart, Lam Akol, as part of a Libyan-sponsored bid to break the ice between the two countries.
”Akol and Allami affirmed their readiness to discuss all political and security issues pending between the two countries and to work for restoring their relations to normalcy,” spokesperson Jamal Mohammed Ibrahim told Agence France-Presse.
Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi initiated a mediation between Chad and Sudan on the sidelines of an African Union summit in Banjul earlier this month.
”While Allami underlined the need for an accelerated resolution of pending issues and expressed his country’s willingness for bilateral relations to be normalised, Akol remarked that the differences between the countries were temporary and would be resolved soon,” Ibrahim added.
”The visit is a sounding-out mission with the aim of perhaps resuming diplomatic relations between Chad and Sudan,” said a member of the Chadian delegation upon its arrival.
Since the start of civil war in the Darfur region of western Sudan, during which more than 200 000 refugees have crossed the border into Chad, the two countries have had tense relations.
The mission led by Allami is the first by such a high-ranking Chad official since Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno in April announced he was breaking off diplomatic relations with Khartoum following a failed coup against his regime.
Déby accused Sudan of arming and backing the rebels who tried to overthrow him while Khartoum has also repeatedly alleged that Chad was supporting Darfur rebel groups engaged in a struggle against the Sudanese government. — Sapa-AFP