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N'Djamena: The UN Security Council has received assurances from Chad and Sudan that they are willing to try to reconcile following last month's rebel attack on Sudan's capital that Khartoum blamed on Chad, France's UN Ambassador said Friday night.
"Our hope is that both Khartoum and N'Djamena will do what they are saying they are willing to do," Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, who is leading the council trip, said after meeting Chadian Prime Minister Youssouf Saleh Abbas and other ministers.
Diplomats from the 15 council nations were expecting to meet Chadian President Idriss Deby, but Ripert said he had "an unforeseeable trip" to Libya. Chadian officials said Deby returned here on Friday night, but the council is leaving on Saturday morning for Congo.
Sudan broke diplomatic relations with Chad last month, blaming its government for backing rebels from the Darfur-based Justice and Equality Movement who attacked near the Sudanese capital. Chad in turn closed its border with Sudan and halted bilateral trade.
Ripert had earlier told reporters that the council was visiting Chad "to plead like we have done in Khartoum in favour of reconciliation between Chad and Sudan."
The council wants the Chadians and Sudanese to keep commitments made in a March peace accord with Sudan signed in Dakar, Senegal, Ripert said. The agreement, brokered after mediation from Libya and Congo and reconciliation efforts from the African Union's new commission chairman, Jean Ping, is aimed at ensuring rebel groups from each country cannot use the neighbouring country as a staging ground for incursions.
Sudan and Chad regularly trade accusations that the other is supporting its rebel foes. Analysts say each country supports rebels hostile to the other.
Chad has accused Sudan of supporting rebels that attacked the Chadian capital twice in the past two years.
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