Sudan and Chad have struck a deal to end hostilities and arrange a summit between their leaders in a move seen as vital for peace-making efforts in Darfur. “The agreement stipulates the halting of hostilities, and everyone is now looking to the future, especially as both countries and people have big interests [in reconciliation],” Qatar’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Ahmad Abdullah al-Mahmud, told reporters on Sunday.
Diplomats have been keen to secure a thaw in relations between Khartoum and N’Djamena, regarding it as essential to any lasting settlement to the six-year-old uprising in the western Sudanese region of Darfur that has spilled over into Chad and the Central African Republic.
“Relations between Chad and Sudan should be normalised. If not, it will be difficult to find a solution to the Darfur crisis,” former South African president Thabo Mbeki said on Saturday.
Qatar and Libya have been leading reconciliation efforts between Chad and Sudan after they restored diplomatic ties in November following the latest six-month rupture between the neighbours.
Each government accuses the other of arming rebels seeking its overthrow.
