Hopes up for Chad-Sudan peace

2006-08-06 16:30

Dakar - Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said on Sunday he hoped a definitive peace deal between Chad and Sudan would emerge from talks between the two African neighbours in three days' time.

"I hope the Dakar accord establishes a definitive peace between Chad and Sudan as well as in the region. I think that we can obtain this," Wade said from Khartoum where he was wrapping up a three-day visit, reported the Senegalese press agency (APS).

Chad's President, Idriss Deby Itno, and his Sudanese counterpart, Omar al-Beshir, are due to meet in Senegal's capital, Dakar, on Wednesday in a bid to normalise their ties.

Relations between the two countries have been strained since the start of a civil war in the Darfur region of western Sudan in February 2003 and which has caused more than 200 000 refugees to flee into Chad.

Hopes for positive results

Deby has accused Sudan of arming rebels who tried to overthrow him while Khartoum has repeatedly claimed 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.

Wade told APS: "If they talk to each other, no one will be able to divide them.

"I hope I will leave from here (Khartoum) with positive results on the relations between Chad and Sudan, results which we will consolidate in Dakar."

- AFP