Troubled neighbours Chad and Sudan have agreed to return ambassadors in two weeks, paving the way to a full restoration of diplomatic ties following rebel attacks, official media said on Friday.
”Sudan and Chad have agreed on the return of their ambassadors to Khartoum and Ndjamena within two weeks,” Sudan’s state news agency, Suna, reported.
Sudanese and Chadian media said the agreement was reached at a meeting in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, on Thursday between Chadian Foreign Minister Moussa Fekki and Sudanese presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail.
The envoys agreed not to assist rebels in either Chad or Sudan — where allegations of cross-border support for armed opponents of regimes in Ndjamena and Khartoum have been at the heart of their diplomatic dispute.
Fekki told Suna that follow-up meetings would be held in Ndjamena on November 15 and in Tripoli November 19 and20, which would also discuss ways Chad and Libya can help resolve problems in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.
Sudan broke off diplomatic relations with Chad in May, accusing Ndjamena of sponsoring an unprecedented assault by Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), on Khartoum.
Chad denied any involvement. Relations between the two countries have a chequered past, with each denying accusations that they are supporting rebel movements fighting their respective regimes.
In February, Chadian rebels, allegedly backed by Khartoum, advanced as far as the gates of the presidential palace in Ndjamena before being repulsed.
The two countries also broke off diplomatic relations in 2006 for four months after a rebel attack on Chad. — AFP
