Chad’s Déby to celebrate Darfur peace deal anniversary

The Chadian President, Idris Déby will visit Sudan on 7 September to participate in the country's celebrations to mark the conclusion of the Darfur peace document that was signed in 2011.

The president also plans a visit to Sudan on 10 October to participate in the work of the General Assembly for the National Dialogue, according to First Vice-President Bakri Hassan Saleh. Saleh met with Déby to discuss economic development in Africa and, on the sidelines, the Tokyo summit which was held in Nairobi.

Sudan's President Omar Al Bashir invited Déby to attend a celebration of the Doha Peace Document in Darfur (DDPD) last July. The peace document was signed on 11 July 2011 between the Sudanese government and the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) of Tijani Sese. The Justice and Equality Movement faction led by Bakhit Abdelkarim Dabajo (JEM-Dabajo) joined the deal on 6 April 2013.

In May this year, Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Ibrahim Ghandour said that Sudan is very keen to have constant relations of cooperation with Chad, which has reached the level of military cooperation in the form of the joint Sudanese Chadian joint forces.

Proxy war

Since late 2009, Chad and Sudan have engaged in a rapprochement. The current leaders of Sudan and Chad are both army officers who took power by force at about the same time (in 1989 and 1990). Their relationship began to change with the Darfur uprising in 2003. The rebel commanders who led the early armed opposition groups against the Sudanese military were Beri (Zaghawa and Bideyat, Chadian president of Idris Deby's tribe) and defected Chadian army officers. In return Al Bashir started to support Chadian groups seeking rear bases and arms in Khartoum.

The proxy war continued for years until after 2009; both countries gave up their conflict to concentrate on other important, political events, according to think-thank Small Arms Survey Sudan.