Chad’s President Idriss Déby Itno and his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Beshir on Tuesday decided to immediately reopen their common border and respective embassies, a high-ranking Chad official said.
The leaders also said they were committed ”to working to reinforce peace between the two countries”, the official added.
Déby nevertheless ”insisted on the presence of a neutral force to watch over the two countries’ borders”, he said.
An official statement is expected shortly.
The announcement came after an impromptu mini-summit between Déby, al-Beshir, Denis Sassou Nguesso, current head of the African Union, Gabon’s President Omar Bongo Ondimba and Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi.
The men met in Gadaffi’s tent after Déby’s swearing-in ceremony. Déby won a third consecutive presidential mandate in elections on May 3.
Al-Beshir’s presence at the ceremony was only announced early on Tuesday and comes despite frosty relations between the two neighbours.
Relations between Chad and Sudan have been strained since the start of a civil war in the Darfur region of western Sudan in February 2003, which has caused more than 200 000 refugees to flee into Chad.
Déby has accused Sudan of arming rebels who tried to overthrow him while Khartoum has repeatedly alleged that Chad backed Darfur rebel groups fighting the Sudanese government.
The two sides signed an accord in Chad’s capital N’djamena on July 26 to normalise ties, agreeing to settle disagreements by diplomatic means and not to use their territory to destabilise the other.
Al-Beshir had been due to fly later in the day to Dakar to attend a summit with Senegalese President Abdullay Wade, who has been seeking to mediate between the two countries.
Déby’s attendance at the summit had still not yet officially been confirmed early on Tuesday. A Chad diplomat said that if talks in N’djamena went well, the summit would not take place. — AFP
